RAILWAYS MANAGER.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 231, 29 September 1928, Page 21

RAILWAYS MANAGER.

HIS APPOINTMENT LEGALISED.

SICK BENEFIT SUBSIDY,

[By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.)

WELLINGTON, this day.

The appointment of a General Manager of Railways, in place of the Railway Board of Control, is sought to be legalised as from June 1 in the Government Railways Amendment Bill, introduced into the House of Representatives to-day. The bill contains the terms under which the service of Mr. H. H. Sterling, General Manager, shall be recognised as continuous in assessing his superannuation, although he ceased to be a contributor to the fund from February, 1926, until his recent reappointment. He is to be required to refund contributions paid to him when he resigned in 1926, and also the actual superannuation contributions which he would have had to pay had he continued in the service.

Authority is sought to pay out of working railways account a sum not exceeding £8000 a. year as subsidy to any sick benefit fund to relieve members of the second division of the service. The Department is to be authorised to deduct contributions to such funds from wages, and the rules of the society are to be subject to the approval of the Minister.

Future appointments to the second division will then be subject to a condition that each employee will become a contributor to the sick benefit fund.

The bill suggests that railway lands not required for railway purposes may be leased under the terms of the Local Bodies Leases Act, and existing leases may be brought under the provisions of this section.

The powers of the Minister to provide dwellings for railway men are to be extended to include the purchase of sites and the erection of dwellings by the Minister in the name of and on behalf of members of the service.

The bill provides that in appeals in respect to promotion in the service the Railway Appeal Board shall either allow the appeal or dismiss it. If the appeal is allowed, the appellant is to be entitled to appointment to the position to which the appeal related.