RAILWAYS BILL.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19166, 24 November 1927, Page 8

RAILWAYS BILL.

POWERS OF MINISTER. APPOINTMENT OF "OUTSIDERS." [THB PEEBB SpecUl Service.] . WELLINGTON, November 23. Few amendments to the Government's Railways Bill have been suggested by the Railways Committee or the House of Representatives. One proposal is that no regrading of the First Division is to take effect unless and until it has been approved by the Minister, while another suggestion is made that members of the Service should have the right of appeal against any appointment made by the Minister. There was some debate on the provisions of the Bill when the committee's report was presented to the House to-day. Mr Howard (Christchurch South), as a member of the committee, criticised the Bill, taking particular exception to the proposal that officers with salaries over £765, should be appointed by the Governor-General, while all others are to be appointed by the Minister, and he wanted to know on what principle this distinction waß drawn. Further he wondered why the former officers were to have no right of appeal, while others had that right. He criticised other clauses which he opposed in committee and explained that his. anxiety about the measure was due to his conviction that he would at an early date be Minister for Eailways, and he desired to see the law as perfect as it was humanly possible to make it. Sir Joseph Ward (Invercargill) Baid he'disliked very much what the House was being asked to do in the Bill and he hoped the House would be given full opportunity to discuss the measure. It seemed to him that the Minister was being given power to bring in any outsider he liked, and appoint him to any high office in the Service. Were capable men with long service to be passed over by the Minister and some outsider given preference! Capable and efficient men of long Bervice should not be passed over in the manner proposed in the Bill.

Mr H. E. Holland, Leader of the Opposition, said he had received protests from Eailway organisations in every part of the country against the constitution of the Appeal Board. The provision which enabled the appointment of outsiders over the heads of tried Railway servants could not be too strongly condemned. Quite a number of measures hitting Government employees over the head with a club had been introduced during the last days of the session.

Mr Veitch (Wanganui) said the proposal to appoint outsiders to high positions in the Service had completely neutralised the ambition of every man in the Department who desired to attain to a higher position. Mr Parry (Auckland Central) condemned the clauses dealing "with appointments, because those clauses were opposed by Railway organisations. The Prime Minister said the Bill would make no difference in the administration of the Railways Department, because it only put into an Act what was already in the regulations. What was now read in the regulations, would, after the passing of the Bill, be read in an Act. He then proceeded to review the history of the Bill, which arose out of a desire to ascertain how men of the Railways Department were paid in comparison with other members of the Public Service. A Board of three men, accustomed to staff work, was appointed, and after two years' work they had revalued various positions in the Service, and made recommendations which were now embodied in the Bill. With regard to the appointment of outsiders, that would be done only in very special cases, and that had always been done. The Railway Employees' Association had considered the Bill, and he had no hesitation in saying that the uniformity in the Service aimed at in the Bill was all to the advantage of the men. With regard to the Appeal Board he pointed out that in future the Board would not deal merely with ordinary appeals, but would deal with the reclassification of the whole Service, which was something quite different from anything the Board had previously attempted. He was, however, prepared to reconsider the question of the constitution of the Board.

The report of the committee was tabled.