His health
moreover was not good, and in less than six months after the completion
of the work of the Commission, he departed this life at the age of 75.
Mr. George Shanahan, Assistant Secretary of the Board of Works, was the
capable Secretary of the Commission. He had the advantage of being a
railwayman. From the service of the Great Northern Railway, Robertson
took him with him to the Board of Works in the year 1896.
Before the Commission began its public sittings it issued and freely
circulated a printed paper entitled "_Draft Heads of Evidence for
Traders, Industrial Associations, Commercial and Public Bodies, etc_."
This paper invited complaints under various set headings and concluded
with these words:--
"Whether there is any other question that might be usefully considered
in determining the _causes that have retarded the expansion of traffic
upon the Irish lines_, and their full utilization for the development
of the agricultural and industrial resources of the country."
The italics are mine. We, rightly or wrongly, looked upon this paragraph
as _assuming_ the case against the Companies to have some foundation in
fact and likely to bias neutral opinion against us, and when (after the
hearing was concluded) three of the seven Commissioners reported that the
evidence "led them to doubt whether expansion of traffic had been
retarded," we felt that our view was not without justification.
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