RAILWAY MANAGEMENT.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16167, 22 March 1918, Page 4

RAILWAY MANAGEMENT.

DEPUTATION TO MR E. H. HILEY. CHTtISTCHURCH CITTEVANCES. A large deputation of members of the Canterbury Chamber of Commerco met Mr E. H. IDley, General Manager of tho New Zealand. Railways, yesterday, for tho purpose of ventilating rme grievances in connexion -with tho running of tho Chrislehurch-Lyttclton railway.

Mr C. H. Hcwlott. president of the Chamber, who was in the chair, said that Canterbury had been a very longsuffering community in putting up for so long, without resorting to strong measures, with, tho mismanagement of the Chrifitchurch-Lyttelton line. There were numerous points of complaint, which would be referred to "by various speakers, bu*. to speak generally, he would say lhat blame was placed on the xvhole administration of that important section of the line. Tho Department seemed to treat the public as though it existed for the railways, and not as though the railways existed for tho public. The way in which tho railways were being run at present affected adversely the whole business life of the community. The general policy of late seemed to be to harass the public under the plea of collecting revenue. There were endless complaints about storage charges, sorting charges, haulage charges, and qualified receipts; which were only given to relieve the Department of any claim from subsequent damage through the neglect of tho Department. Then there were the anomalies in the tariff. For instance, it paid better to send furnituro to Aldington from l>vttelton, and cart it to Christchurch, than to rail direct to Christchurch. Canterbury had. also had a great deal of trouble with the late trains, and when that was partly remedied the Department delayed loading by putting fewer men in the trucks. As a monopoly tho railways seemed to _be rather a curse than a blessing to the public, and Christchurch a.nd Lyttekon were specially penalised because they were at the mercy of tho Department through their peculiar situation What was wanted was reasonable and sympathetic administration, and the only way out of the difficulty was he thought, a complete reorganisation'. The incapables should be removed from the positions they held at present. If managersof businesses quarrelled with their customers in the way the railway officials quarrelled with the public, they would soon be told to go. There need not be trouble at all, for there were excellent men in the railway, as had been proved. There was no trouble with Lyttelton wlwn Mr Matheson was in charge (applause), but subsequent officials seemed to wholly consider the Department, and consider the public very little. The way tho Department carried out its duties aid not make for efficiency by a long way, and instead of helping the commerce of the country it was tending to strangle it. He was' afraid that if they continued to work on the present lines the Minister of Financc would never be able to get his revenue in tho sensible way, by taxation, for the railway management was actually driving trade away. To his mind things were so bad that nothing but complete reorganisation would rectify them.

BUSIN ESSLIKE TREATMENT WANTED. Mr A. Kaye. chairman of the Lyttelton Harbour Board, sketched the historv of the Canterbury railways from the time the provinces handed over the existing lines and rolling-stock to the Government. After the 1890 strike many men had been taken on to assist in the work, and had since been kept on the railway staff, who possibly, in the ordinary course of events, would not have been engaged. Some of these were not up to their work, extra men had to be engaged,-and Mie railway charges were increased iini'j after time, and gradually an agitation «Tew up for a canal, to relieve the business community from the tyranny of the railway. He ventured to say that had the railways been run on proper and businesslike lines there won If I have been none of the talk of the canal and an extra road througn the hill and all that sort of thing. Christchureh had suffered for lone:, and in spH-f it protests and complaints it had been found almost impossib : e to L-ct redress. It was absolutely Imperative that the business men should be treated on reasonable lines, and if thev- were so treated the Department would be certainly met in a reasonable spirit. He asked what had the Christchurch comi-'Umty received in benefits from Mr Hiley since he had taken over the management:* He did not .-peak in a carping spirit, and realised tint! Mr Hiley migfit be overruled and , trammelled, but practically all the Christchurch business community had j got was the speeding-up of the Christ-: church-Lyttelton train. A new goods shed had been promised for Cnristchurch before the end of March, 191S, j and it had not yet been started. i "AT THE MERCY OF THE ! Railway. - ' \ Mr H. J. Marriuer. chairman of the Railway Committee of the Chamber of Commerce, said most of the matters which the business community wanted to have rectified by the Department were comparatively small things, which a third-rate business house would have rectified in half an hour. Christ-. church was unfortunately situated, in lat it 'had only access to its port

bv ihe railwav. and it was absolutely at the mercy of the railway in all inspects. All they wanted was that the railways should be run on ordinary commercial lines. Christchurch reonle were actually penalised from to V- rer cent, on their business operations as compared with other HARSHNESS AND INEFFICIENCY.

Mi- S. Paicrson said the complaints made bv the business people of Christchurch 'could be placed under three main heads, namely: (I) L'njust incidcncc of railway rates; (•21 Inefficiency of the system; and ,3i Harshness in the railway aunim--18 Tho inefficiency of the railway system often resulted in considerable loss to the Department, and instead of removins the inefficiency. it raised rates to cover tho losses. 1 hey Mr Hiley to make a thorough overnajl of the whole railway administration between Ohristchiji-ch and Lyttelton, and to appoint for that purpose the very host man which Mr H.ley could find either in or out of the service. Jf Mich a man could be found, the business men w>uld assist him in e.ve>7 wav to find out the numerous inefficiencies and to remedy them. Anofch-ti "■round of strong complaint was T.nt Intensely unsympathetic manner m which the Cbrislchurch-Lyttelton .me was' administered. A system. r.ovrever "ood, would be absolutely useless without a sympathetic administration.

LYTTELTON OPINION. Mr J. Garrard, Lyttelton, endorsed wluit had been .said with regard to the Lv tt-e lton-C'n ris teliu reh raiJw«i>. There had bi-cu liUie or nothing done, and there was still an insufficiency oi haulage power, shunters, and Horsemen, and serious and most inconvenient delavs took place in the handling of 'T-oods.* tie admitted that space was linn ted in Lylteiton. but the space and facilities available were not used to the greatest advautago. The cheeseparing policy in loteo during the past eighteen months had been very ed, aud bad had a most adverse eftect upon the efficiency of the port. A ease in point was the iact that the railway charged overtime rates tor their men working on ships, but thej did not pay this money to the men, but gave them time off. This resulted in the permanent casual staff growing exceedingly discontented and unsettled, and such a state of affairs was obviouslv very bad for efficiency. Men should be put into the Department who had business- capacity and common-sense, and a clean sweep should bo made of somo of the present inefficient officials. EXISTENCE OF PILFERING. ]Mr H. Elliott, manager of the Now Zealand Shipping Company, expressed the hope that the present mooting would really result in something being done. The previous conferences with Mr AVaite, of the Railway Department, and again- with Mr llilcy, had unfortunately resulted in nothing being done, and not even a reply had been received, so far as he knew. Ihe speaker referred to the complaints of the Department's "wot truck" receipts, and to the matter of pilfering both in Christchurch and Lyttelton. The police on more than one occasion had obtained convictions for thefts of goods in Lyttelton, and it was not unreasonable to ask that the Department should make some effort to stop the practice in Christchurch, where it undoubtedly occurred. A man who had been convicted* of theft from tbo railway trucks in Lyttelton, had admitted that he had learnt the practice in Christchurch, where it was rife.

MR HILEY'S REPLY. Mr E. 11. Hiiey, in reply, said that before ho dealt with the general complaints made, he must say he thought tho speakers had been unduly harsh upon tho local officers, and had not made due allowance lor the extreme shortage of the 6taff. They had inferred that the Traffic Manager, Mr Stringleman, was unsympathetic towards them, but he (tlie speaker) and the Department must take their full sharo of the blame, if any, which was to be shouldered. As regarded the rates charged, tho Cabinet and tho General Managor must be held responsible for the increases, and Mr Stringleman had to interpret these rates strictly in the terms of the tariff. There had been complaints made about delays and "cheeseparing," but they must remember that trouble arising from these causes was not due to the local officials. Tho.y could not compare the conditions now with those of three or four years ago. The same thing had occurred in private businesses; labour troubles wore universal. He did not wish, however, to use the war as an excuse for unsympathetic treatment, or for making matters worse than they need be. He was quite prepared to hear complaints in detail, and to appoint an Outside traffic official to investigate to see if they could not mitigate the effect of tho war on the staff. Mr Huston, the Chief Traffic Manager, was present., and he (the speaker) would ask him later to come down and conduct an investigation into the whole administration here. He would also depute another senior official to go into all tho de+nils with Christchurch business men. Mr Buxton would then furnish him with a full report, and. if necessary and possible, ho also would come down. He realised that the Railway Department was under an obligation to treat the public fairly, but the business men _ must not forget tho changed conditions, nor must thej' be unduly hard upon Mr Stringleman, who had been blamed for many things beyond his control.

Mr Hiley then dealt generally with the complaints which bad bo?n made by the previous speakers, and said that he would consider them all in detail on a subsequent occasion. So far as the situation of Christchurch was concerned they should not blame the Department for its geographical handicap. The Department had to carry cut work, extra work, on account of this, and it was plain that the business men had to pay for it. The rates were ih force in all parts in the Dominion, and he could say that with regard to the present rates they -were still unremunerative, owing to the higher wages paid and the hiaher cost of coal and other material."' With regard to Mr Kaye's complaint that nothing had been done, he would say that Mr Kayo must know that in I'd] 1 he li<id prepared a scheme which woukl very reasonably have alleviated much, if not all, of the present trouble. Unfortunately it had pleased the Kaiser to declare war since then, and the scheme had had to stand over for financial reasons. Since Mr White's retirement, he had- felt the need of a commercial agent, but at present there seemed little prospect. of getting a man to fill the position. With regard to pilfering, had 4ieen systematically watched for a considerable time in Christ-hnrcli now, and from information he had received, he believed thefts had been reduced to as small a number as possible. The system of qualified receipts he thought would have to continue. He had ber>n informed that the giving of qualified receipts was not so prevalent as had been made out by some speakers, and he could not agree to give a cloar receipt for rorgo which could not i>o pronerly examined or which appeared to be damaged, as the effects might be verv serious indeed to the Department. Mr Hiley concluded by stating that he thought the wishes of the meeting would be met by the appointment of the senior officer of the Department to carry out a searching enquiry, as he had indicated. Referr'ng to the sacrifices made by the Department, he remarked that " 70 r < men had gone from it to the war, and since May last another 1700 had left. At the present moment they had on the railways only about 100 fit, single men of military age. who were being kept back to deal with suburban train services in various places. There were no fewer than 4300 vacancies in the service, and owing t-o the stress of circumstances much untrained labour had to 1>« employed. They uot only had less quantity now, but a poorer finality, in that

much had to be trained and could only work under close supervision. The railway paid good wages, but it could not compete with the otits : de demand, and there was much trouble with resignations. The railway had great difficulties in carrying on at all at the present time, for in addition to the labour question there was the coal question, which was very serious indeed. _ If the curtailed service had not been in existence last year, the railways would have been absolutely out of coal on one or two occasions. They could see, therefore, that the Department had very serious difficulties indeed to contend with, and he wished that they would view the Department's work from the light of their own experience in carrying on their business.

Mr Marmaduke Dixon referred to an alleged -waste of money in the country by the building at Bennett's station. Mr Stringleman stated that he regretted to hear that he had been considered unsympathetic. He had always tried to be reasonable, bnt could only act -within his powers.