MR GOOSMAN’S REPORT

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 106, 17 February 1950, Page 6

MR GOOSMAN’S REPORT

DISCUSSION WITH RAILWAYMEN STATEMENT BY MINISTER (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Feb. 16. The Minister of Railways (Mr W. S Goosman) said to-day that he had read comments made by two railway societies and that as there appeared to be some misunderstanding of his statement, possibly because newspapers were unable to devote sufficient space to publish the complete report, he had met the executive officers of the four railway societies: the Railway Officers’ Institute, the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, the Engine-Drivers, Firemen, and Cleaners’ Association, and the Railway Tradesmen’s Association. After seeing the full statement they had agreed that the Minister’s report was much more comprehensive and placed a different complexion on the matter and that it did not in any way reflect upon the staff of the railways. Mr Goosman said that in his statement it -was made quite clear that staff shortages, which necessitated longhours of duty, swelled the wage content of operating costs unduly by penal rate payments. Under a full staff normal wage rates would apply. “I recognise the good work being done by railwaymen and women,” said the Minister, “and this was made very clear in the concluding portion of my statement, which read as follows: ‘Finally I would like to say that it is my opinion that the railway staff in general are a loyal and earnest body of men and women, and I feel confident that it will be their continued endeavour in future to make the railways as efficient an organisation as possible in the interests of the Dominion as a whole.”