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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 2, Issue 11 (March 1, 1928)

A Proud Record

A Proud Record.

An idea of what has been accomplished on our system in comparatively recent years may be gathered from the following table of safety progress compiled from the Department's annual Statements to Parliament:—

Year 1905, number of passengers carried, 8½ million (exclusive of season ticket holders); number injured, 19 (10 fatally); 1915, 23½ millions, 13 (3 fatally); 1927, 26 million, 3 (none fatally).

Now what accounts for this general tendency towards a decrease in the number of accidents to passengers in spite of an increasing passenger traffic! The men on the railways, twenty years ago, were probably—like the “All Blacks”—as good in their time, as are those of to-day. The trains were slower and fewer. The engines, and their loads, were lighter. The tracks were less congested and time was not so much of the essence of the contract.

For in 1905 the “tablet” system had not come into general operation. There was no “biscuit” held by a driver as tangible evidence of his right of road, and taken from a machine so constructed page 7 structed that no other similar authority could be obtained until the one already received had fulfilled its purpose and been withdrawn from circulation. The safety which passengers have secured from the Tyer's Tablet System cannot be over-estimated. It has been to safety, what soap is to cleanliness, or blacking is to boots. It has stood their friend against the possibility of mixed crossing orders, against errors at junctions regarding track precedence, against written or printed mistakes, and against the chance of collision between one train and another arising from hold-ups to services through flood, or storm, or rush traffic.