From II. S. Fish. M.H.R., Dunedin.

I am favoured with your circular of 15th inst., and I beg to reply as follows:—As a general rule I think that any business which the State through its Representatives think it desirable to undertake, should be managed by the State and be under the direct control of Parliament, and acting under this impression when the Bill creating the Commissioners was before Parliament. I gave it my strong opposition, but found myself in a very large minority, and I am compelled to admit that at that time the people were unmistakeably in favour of removing the administration of the Railways from political control. I am further constrained to admit that on the whole the present system has worked very well, and I doubt very much the wisdom of altering it and reverting to the old system. page 14 Of this, however, I have no doubt, that it would be an act of madness to alter the system as proposed by the Government is the Bill introduced last Session. To retain the three Conmissioners and practically take all power from them and vest it in the Minister of Public Works, would, I am convinced, be as unsatisfactory as it would be needlessly expensive. I must confess that i should like to see Parliament have more control over the Railway Estimates than it has at present, but I am not prepared to suggest how this can be obtained without doing away with the present Commissioners. The times are at present, in my opinion, somewhat out of joint, and therefore on the whole I think it would be prudent to allow matters to remain as they are.