A great adventure, with the odds on success—that is how the change in the system of administration adopted under the Railways Amendment Act of 1931 impresses me.

It represents the materialisation of an idea with possibilities for the future welfare of the railway system of the Dominion and of the Dominion itself.

The freeing of the Department from the deflecting or dispersing power of non-business influences and considerations clears the decks for the emergence of a policy which will allow the principles of modern business management to have fuller play.

The responsibilities of the Board are great and obvious. Equally great, if not greater, is the responsibility of the public to adjust its point of view and its methods of approach to the railway business to conform to the new conditions. The change connotes the abandonment of the political point of view as affecting the Department's business and of political channels of approach to the Department. The extent and effectiveness of the change in both these aspects will, in the last analysis, depend on the public itself. It is a great opportunity.