RAILWAY GRIEVANCES.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 43, 14 November 1907, Page 5

RAILWAY GRIEVANCES.

A STRONG INDICTMENT. ■ Sir,—l have just read with interest your loador.in to-day's issuo, which makes a comparison between the salary of the railway officers and those of the P.0.-and Telegraph Department. Just a.word about Division two of tho railway employees. Throughout tho Dominion tho new Classification Act .has been received with utter , disappointment. Men of all grades had hopes and were led to believe that their wrongs would, be adjusted, but the scheme which caused, the Premier such sleepless nights has turned out (to the bone and muscle of the service) what appears to bo the product of a nightmare, as. all his scheming has been for the fat man. The running staff of tho second, division, or those who are responsible for tho public safety, have , been sadly, left. In order to verify this conclusion it is necessary to. go back some years. ! Twonty years ago the salaries of various grades were as follows:—Stationmaster, £140 and house; clerk, £140; guard, Ist class 10s. per day, 2nd Bs. Gd.; drivers, Ist class 12s. per day, 2nd 11s.;. porters, surfacomen, labourers, 6s:,;,Gd,,.per,, v (|ay v , r: A'. few gears' ago, as times became better'and the cost, of living greater, the statiohmas'tor, W3,s,.ra,is,e(l|to.£lßo,. and a little later the clerk to £i 80; also the, 6s. 6d. per day men wore increased to 7s. In 1905 the 7s. men, were given Is. per day, increase, as an allowarico (tho allowance is now made law under the new Act).. Shops tradesmen received an increase also. During tho whole of. this time the' guards arid drivers had not received one penny increase in pay. The guards are undoubtedly the worst off of all tho employees, and this is admitted by nil from the S.M. to the lamp-boy. They say if a guard was worth as much to the Department as' a clerk twenty years ago, and 2s. rhore than a labourer, why,such a difference how? . '.'■■,

...Under the new classification, the clerk goes to £220 por annum, and the drivers and guards got a mere pittance of 6d. per day, which amounts to £7 16s. per year. , This means that for every £. the. guard has got, the clerk has got £10; arid .the porter, the labourer and surfaceman £3, during the last twenty years. As you have made a comparison, allow mo to compare the guard with;the P.O. letter-carrier of New Zealand. As regards responsibility, the latter has little to cojnparo with the railway guard. Under the new Acts of this.session, a first-grade lettercarrier can receive'.a'maximum, of £200 per annum, while the guard' cannot ro beyond £164.

Whon Sir Joseph Ward.was made Minister for Railways some six or seven years ago, it was one of his utterances that no man should havo to wait in the service until he was greyheaded before ho got :into tho first grades 'as a guard, consequently the percentage of Ist grade was increased to 50 per cent. The new Act reduces the percentage to 33 per cent. I will try to show how far th.e 50 per cent, basis was to.the benefit of the men. The late Guard Lowe, who lost his life' in the train accident at Auckland,'was 16 years in the service, and the. last payment the poor follow got was Bs. 6d. por day. The guard who. was discharged in connection with the Biinkside collision had a like wage. To come nearer home, Mr. Editor, probably it will be nows to you ts know that thoro is a'guard in charge of the express train which leaves the capital of this fair Dominion of ours with 17 years service getting the same magnificent salary of Bs. 6d. per day. The lot of the policeman is hotter than .tho guard, as the force receives 9s. for sixteen years' service. The man who drives the rubbish cart is better off still. , ■ i-

I feel* sure the public riovor intended such a state of things as exists under the present conditions on tho railways.. The men have kept silent in hopes. that things would turn out better, but they find tho present Premier's sympathies are not with them.- In order to keep down exrjeiiditure men's promotion is retarded. I will give you one instance of bow the 50 per cont. basis is worked in the Traffic Department. In Auckland-nt present there are between 20 and 30 actingguards. These men are classified as shunters mostly, the idea being to keen the percentage of shunters up, and'the--'percentage of guards down,, whilo these men are doing guard's work and the shunting is done by porters'and juniors. This is a big grievance in.the Traffic.Department, and the one that prevents promotion. If this is the custom with the 50 per cent, grades, how much slower will the promotion bo when tho new Act comes into operation on tho 33 per cent, basis. In'short, a guard, will be worse off now than 20 years ago, as money would buy moro of the necessaries of life then than now, and thero was less "working tho oracle" to keep down expenditure. .If the Premier and acting-Minister for Railways does not intend to give the guards a decent wage, why does . u .e givo them the responsibility?. This is an extract of a copy of the Department's recent regulations, page 80, issued on July 1, 1907:— "From the moment that tho train is in motion the guard will lw held responsible for its safe working and punctuality, and the engine-driver must tako his instructions, as to the starting, stopping, and general working of the train from the guard. He must satisfy himself that the train- ia properly loaded, marshalled, coupled, lamped, and sheeted; that' tho brakes in good.working order; ;that the train is in a state of efficiency for travelling, etc." •Thore arc other duties too numerous to mention here. ' .

Thero is a hoary-headed Conservative idea in New Zealand regarding promotion from tho second division to the first All men paid by the day are second division, and ;those paid by tho year are the first division. There is a bigeer chanoe of a camel going

through tlio oyo of a needle than a man being ..allowed to go, say, from a porter to a clerk. Ho may bo able to telegraph, do postal work, kcop any railway books, and bo a better all. round man than the clerk, but every. obstacle js put in liis way to prevent promotion. This idea niust have been copied from tho old Tory notions about the British army a hundred years ago, when < Tommy Atkitis ;was never, allowed to obtain a commission, arid the idea seems to be dying a harder death in New Zealand than at Home. In fact, I can name six men who have been brought off tho street, put into the first division, allowed to learn bookkeeping and telegraphy in Government time, and made permanent clerks (these six are in Wellington , alono), yet many second division men have qualified in every detail and had to stand down for the service. Enclosed you will find the names of the six men alluded.to. The President of' the "United States of Amorica,- in a recent speech, said as follows :— "The 20th century wanted the man who could do things. It did not matter who ho was, what his father did, so long as he could do the work required of him, hence the century must ho Democratic. , Democracy meant opportunity and every man should havo an opportunity to develop what was in him. • In New Zealand ability is a secondary consideration where class distinction is concerned; and the present Premier has shown by the amended classification of railway men that his sympathy.is with the top of the tree. Sir Joseph Ward stated some little time ago that the men were leaving the service because the work was distasteful to them. Nothing of the sort! They loave simply hecauso the conditions of service are distasteful. Let any one' go, to tho Wellington station platform, arid see the new chums (emigrants), Scotch, Irish, and English, each with only one article of uniform on; one a cap, another a vest, another a coat, etc. These men stay there for a while, until they see the Bs. Gd. per day guard, with 17 or 18 years' service, and other big salaries they are likely to get in the dim future, and away they go to another job, and so the samo old cast-off cap covers tho head of 'all three nationalities. Tho railway service fails to attract the youth and energy it used to, bocauso men can get better wages driving the butcher's and baker's cart. I must apologise Mr. Editor, for trespassing on the. space of your valuable paper, but it has been my endeavour to show you how men are treated by tho Railway Department, and how the new Act is likely to affect the men. Tho' conclusion of every railwayman I. have met has been that there is a deal of tho "golden brick" about it, or "gallery play." ■ I might add that I am pleased to state that I loft tho service some time ago, having spent the- host part of my life in it, but the chances of increase of pay were too remote. -Yours, etc., EX . OmC IO. Wellington, November 13.