present General Manager of the Londonderry and Lough
Swilly Company, was appointed to that position in September, 1916. He
came from the Great Central Railway. This is what I said about him in my
report: "He is a good railway man, capable and experienced. He has
assumed and exercises an authority which none of his predecessors
possessed, and is keen to do all he can to improve matters and develop
the railway." Further acquaintance with Mr. Hunt has more than confirmed
my high opinion of him.

In due time my report was submitted to the Privy Council, which august
body, after hearing all that was to be said on the subject by the Lough
Swilly Railway Company and others, made an Order which is the first of
its kind--an Order which, for a period of two years, took out of the
hands of the Lough Swilly Railway Directors the management of the
Burtonport Railway, and placed it in the hands of Mr. Hunt, subject to my
supervision. The Order said: "Henry Hunt, at present the General Manager
of the Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railway Company, is hereby appointed
Manager of the said undertaking of the said railway under and subject to
the supervision of Mr. Joseph Tatlow, Director of the Midland Great
Western Railway Company of Ireland." Then followed various clauses
defining the duties and authority with which Mr. Hunt, as Manager, was
invested.

This appointment, to supervise, under the Privy Council, the management
of the Burtonport line, was the pleasant surprise which Dame Fortune
brought me in my fiftieth year of railway work.

The duties of the office began on the 1st of July, 1917, and the two
years prescribed have expired; but Mr. Hunt's management and my
supervision have, by Privy Council Order, been extended for a further
period. My story may not go beyond fifty years, but this I may say, that
what Hunt and I were able to accomplish in the first six months of our
novel _regime_ was an augury of what we have accomplished since, and that
a grateful public throughout the district of North-West Donegal, which
the Burtonport Railway serves, does not stint its praise. Trains are
punctual now, engines do not break down, carriages are comfortable, goods
traffic is well worked, and delays are exceptional. Much has been done,
more would have been done but for difficulties due to the war, and a good
deal still remains to be done.

In North-West Donegal, some two years ago, the idea of writing this book
was conceived, an