The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-11-28 00:00:00

REFORMS AT THE ADMIRALTY.

We (the Standard) are in a position to state that
the scheme of Admiralty Reform is now fairly com-
plete, though some matters of detail still remain to
be elaborated. The plan adopted has more than one
important feature, but that which will first strike at-
tention consists in making the Accountant-General
practically Assistant to the Financial Secretary, the
Accountant-General's Department being completely
reconstructed. The change is intended to be one not
merely in name, but such as shall really effect the
purpose desired by Parliament and the taxpayer. A
new office, is to be created by the appointment
of a Director of Dockyards, who will be
attached to the Controller's Department. The
post of Surveyor of Dockyarde will be abolished. The
new official will be constantly v:siting and inspecting
personally the several yards. In the next place,
the Admiral Superintendent at each of the three
great dockyards—Portsmouth, Chatham, and Devon-
port—will have a civil assistant, or general civil
manager. All the civil departments will thus be
brought under one head, a principle already observed
in respect to the naval side of the yards. From this
it will be seen that the appointment of a permanent
high official, who should be specially charged with
the care of the finances, has not found favour at the
Admiralty. Tne objections to the appointment of a
Finance Lord are understood to be twofold. Either
he would be armed with such tremendous power as
to be of little less than an autocrat, or if his func-
tions were restricted, he would be useless. At the
same time, there can be no doubt that the appoint-
ment of a Finance Lord at the Admiralty would be
hailed with satisfaction in many quarters, if for no
other reason, because of his ability to stand his
ground against all comers.
With respect to the dockyard system more general
approval may be expected. The step taken by Lord
George Hamilton in appointing Vice-Admiral Graham
to the post of controller afforded a guarantee that the
administration of the dockyards would speedily
undergo a salutary change. The Departmental Com-
mittee presided over by this officer made some very
strong recommendations in reference to dockyard
management, and Admiral Graham may be expected
to pursue con amore such changes as the Report of
his Committee showed were necessary. The reten-
tion of an Admiral at the head of each dockyard may
be critieioed, tut it is to be defended for the reason
that such an official possesses practical knowledge
of what is required in the details of a ship. Hence-
forth the Admiral Superintendent will have at
his elbow an assistant who will be able to
supply the necessary technical knowledge, and
who may be compared to the manager or foreman
of a private yard, working under the eye of a senior
partner. One will know what is wanted, and the
other will know how it is to be accomplished. In
connection with these changes provision will be made
for a continuous audit, conducted by authorities in-
dependent of the dockyards. This outside audit,
taking place at short intervals, will be a check upon
countless irregularities possible under the present I
system. These irregularities are honest enough in
the ordinary sense of the term; but they lead to con-
fusion, consisting as they do in the expenditure of
money for some other purpose than that for which it
was directly intended. By the officials concerned it
is generally thought that it all comes to the same
thing in the end ; but the laxity is nevertheless
objectionable, and the new system is intended to pre-
vent its continuance. In this way we shall now be able
to learn the exact cost of a ship when built in the Royal
Dockyards, a matter hitherto by no means assured.
There is to be greater simplicity in the accounts, and ,
a clear representation of the purpose to which every 1
pound is applied. Greater responsibilty is to be thrown
upon all the heads of the civil establishments, checked
by the new method of audit. The Constructors inthe ,
Admiralty yards will be encouraged to study economy,
since they will get the credit of it, of which there has
been no assurance in the obscurity which has hitherto
characterised the dockyard accounts. Another impor-
tant element will be a large diminution in the circum-
locutory [references now going forward between the
dockyards and the Admiralty.
The extra cost of the new system will not be great.
Mr. George Rendle having left the Board of Ad-
miralty, and the post not being filled up, there is a
saving of £2OOO per annum in that direction, which
will be an acceptable counterbalance to the increased
expenditure now coming on at Whitehall. In respect
to the dockyards, there is every reason to believe that
the stricter supervision will be productive of con-
siderable saving, more than enough to compensate
for the additional salaries. In the keeping of the
accounts the system will require a clear rendering of
liabilities. Expenditure alone is a delusive test, as
experience has lately demonstrated, and the Lords of
the Admiralty need to know, not only what they are
spending, but what they are pledged to spend. What-
ever may be said in criticism of the plan now set on
foot, it is certain that Lord George Hamilton has
spared no pains to get the clearest light and the
best counsel. He has had the benefit of advice
from several committees, and it cannot be said
that the absence of a Finance Lord from the
new organisation is at variance with the Report
og Mr. Goschen's Committee. Mr. Ritchie has
publicly refuted the errors which arose on that point,
the fact being that the committee made no specific
recommendations whatsover. They showed that there
was an entire want of effective financial control in
respect to the affairs of the Admiralty, and they de-
clared emphatically that there was need for reform.
Their words were as follows . "The position of the
Accountant General does not enable him to exercise
any sufficient general supervision of expenditure,
while there is no other permanent high official
specially charged with finance. While your com-
mittee do not feel competent, on the evidence before
them, to suggest the appointment of such an official,
or the enlargement of the functions of the Accountant
General, or to make any other specific recommenda-
tions, they feel it incumbent upon them to draw the
attention of the House urgently to the subject." The
new plan is clearly an improvement on the old, and
it will be readily admitted that great credit is due to
the present First Lord of the Admiralty and his col-
leagues for dealing thus promptly and, vigorously
with the unsatisfactory state of affairs prevalent at
the time they took office.

He who begins with severity in judging of another
ends commonly with falsehood.
A miser in the midst of his wealth is like a fly in
molasses that can't get out.
-Many run about after happiness, like an absent-
minded man hunting for his hat while it is on his
head or in his hand.

Young Rector: "You go to the Kindergarten, little
girl ?" Little Girl : " Yeth, sir." Y. R. : "There
are many little boys and girls at the Kindergarten ?"
L. G.: " Yeth, sir." Y. B.: "I hope they are very
good, and never say or do anything naughty ?"
L. G.: "Well, thir, Johnny Sharp did thay that
Harry Brown wath g fool, but then he ith, you
know !'

THE FATAL COLLISION AT WARWICK
ROAD JUNCTION:
The result, in the form of a report, has just been
published of the inquiry conducted by Major-General
Hutchinson, one of the inspectors of the Board of
Trade, into the causes of the fatal collision which
occurred on Sunday, the 23rd.of August last, between
a Great Western and a Metropolitan District train,
at the Warwick-road Junction, close to Earl's-court
Station on the Metropolitan District Railway, where-
by one person, John Davison, the driver of the Great
Western train, was killed, and 24 persons were in-
jured. It appears that at the west end of Earl's-
court Station, through which there four lines of rails,
the lines to and from Hammersmith Junction join
the lines to And from West Brompton, the
junction being called the: Warwick-road Junc-
tion. This crossing is used on week days by
150 up passenger trains proceeding from Earl's-court
towards Hammersmith Junction, and by 65 down
passenger trains proceeding from West Brompton to
Earl's-court, or by an average of about one in five
minutes, exclusive of goods trains and unattached
engines. Major-General Hutchinson reports that the
immediate cause of this very serious collision was the
fracture of the vertical rod working the Warwick-
road Junction home signal applying to the line from
West Brompton to the main down platform line at
Earl's-court. In consequeace of this fracture the
driver of the District Company's train from Putney
to New-cross found the signal off when he came in
sight of it, prepared to stop at it if at danger, but
seeing that it stood at "all right" he put on steam
and came into collisioewith the Great Western train
at the crossing. The breaking of the signal rod
appears to have been the result of a flaw covered by
a nut, which it is probable had never been moved
since March, 1882. It further appears that, in
consequence of the sight of the home signal from
the signal cabin not being good, an electric
repeater was placed in the cabin, which should have
shown the state of the signal, but owing to a packing
piece having fallen out, the repeater was out of order
at the time of the accident. The inspector remarks
that ol the day of the accident the signalman on
duty at the Warwick-road Junction was working very
lone'' hours—namely, from 6.23 a.m. to 11.30 a.m.,
and from 12.30 p.m. to 1 a.m., or about 17i hours
with an interval of one hour, and that although thi3
was only an occasional duty on two Sundays out of
five, when there were fewer trains to be dealt with
than on ordinary week days, the arragement was in
his opinion a most objectionable one, particularly at
an important junction where eight hours was the
longest time any man should be kept on duty. The
inspector recommends that the arms of signals should
be so balanced that when even a connecting rod gives
way the signal should spring to danger in accordance
the long-established requirements of the Board of
Trade.