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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 76

Introduction to My Sixth Pamphlet

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Introduction to My Sixth Pamphlet.

In presenting to the public my sixth pamphlet, I feel that I owe an explanation, if not an apology, for devoting so much space to the question of Railway Administration, but I do so because the more I think over it the more I am convinced of the supreme importance of the right management of the road.

Some, perhaps many, of my readers will be inclined to think that I have pressed with undue severity on the railway officials, but I am sure they will alter their opinion if they read me to the end. What we have lost through their sacrificing the public to their own private interests, is more than any one can tell. That I am justified in thus speaking of them is proved by the fact that for many months past they have been content to lie under what practically amounts to a charge of perjury. They dare not attempt to defend themselves, and appear to have banded together to brazen the matter out by a stubborn silence. Men in their position ought to have felt that their word was as sacred as their oath. They know well that they could not again go through the ordeal of an examination, and this is the reason why on all subsequent committees, it has been demanded of me that I should say what I have to say in writing. Well, at last I have said part of it. Will they be gratified with the result? I would willingly have avoided the scandal.

I ask the particular attention of my readers to the paragraph on Russian Railways.

I also ask attention to the scheme of narrow-gauge railway construction, which I hope will commend itself to the country.

Although my more than 16 years of continuous work has so far brought no real relief to this country, it is pleasant to remember that it has conferred vast benefits on millions of people in far away Europe—people who have never even heard my name. It is ever so. The worker must be content to cast his bread upon the waters, and those for whom he did the work are too often the last to reap the benefit. But why is this?

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Those who take an interest in that propoganda, of deception, fraud, and robbery—the Single Tax—may possibly find some new ideas, some new illustrations of the wicked and mischievous nature of the proposal. I direct their particular attention to the tables towards the end of the article.

I had hoped to deal with the questions of co-operation and monopolies, but cannot at present find time.

The fact that I never have time to re-write anything I publish, must be my excuse for literary defects. Of these I am conscious. All my effort has been directed to making sure of my facts and figures, and in this I believe I have succeeded.

Samuel Vaile.

The Avenue, Auckland, New Zealand,