MORE RAILWAY GRIEVANCES.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1152, 13 June 1911, Page 2

MORE RAILWAY GRIEVANCES.

THE ALLEGED "SPY"SYSTEM. SUPPOSED METHODS PURSUED. OTHER MATTERS DISCUSSED. In (he recent issue of tho- "Timaru Herald" is published the manner in which (ho Railway Department is currently believed to 1)0 testing tho honesty of its staff by the employment of people who endeavour to impose on the guards. The "Herald" states: — 'Ware—Theatrical Agents! "It scorns that two spies—a man and a woman—liavo lately been travelling on tho railway in the south, as well as in tho North Island, their object, it is said, being to trap tho guards. The man and woman are said to be husband and wife, but they travel in different carriages, leave tho railway stations by different ways, and take separate rooms in tho hotels whore they stay. Tho man sometimes, if not always, passes himself off as tlio advance agent for a 'theatrical company. What the pair do is to test tho guards to seo whether fliey can be 'got at' in the matter of issuing tickets. The modus operandi may bo gleaned from what look placc recently on tho lino between Duncdin and Palmerston South. The man boarded the train at Duncdin, taking a ticket for Morton, tho presumption being that ho knew well there was no accommodation there. Merton is a flag-station, and as this man was the only passenger for it, tho guard had to stop ■tho train specially for him. He asked tho guard if there was any accommodation there, and on being told there was iioiio, affected great surprise, and said lie would have to go on .to Palmerston. lie accordingly got on tho train again, nnd on tho guard telling him that, lie would require another ticket, the man is said to have endeavoured to persuade the guard not to bother about issuing another ticket, hut to put the money in his pocket. The guard, however, would have liono of this. Ho issued tho ticket, and mado the man pay for it in tlio ordinary waj. Tlio man spent a day in Palmerston, nnd next day went up the Dunback line, where ho wont through a similar performance, but again without trapping tho guard. His general practice is to take a ticket for a flag-station, and tlion try to over-rido tho distance. _ • "Railwavmen are very indignant over tho matter. They say thai I hey have no objection io any. straiglit-out check that the Department may choose to put on them, hut they do object most strongly to being spi« i d upon. They consider that tho methods of tho spies invite the guards to be dishonest, and wliile no old or experienced guard is likely to fall into the trap, it is possible 'that a young and inexperienced guard might givo way to temptation put in his way. "If a Common-sense. Man were put in Charge." "Wo arc convinced fsays the "Railway Review") that more than half tho trouble in tho railway servicc would end in a week if a common-senso man, with absolute power, were put in charge. ]f the Hon. J. A. Millar could spare time to investigate grievances grown musty with old age, labelled by permanent officers 'trivial' or 'non-existent, 1 , ho would earn the gratitude of thousands, and not causo the State to spend an. extra sixpence. There are so many sides to railway work that tho question of keeping tho staff in good heart is generally neglected while somo more technical problem is being solved. It required a sharp shock to make the workshop officials wake up to the fact that their pay system, tolerated for years, is unjust to the men, and absolutely unbusinesslike.

Mokoia Tells its Own Story. "This was one sample of,the, official pinprick. Hero is another: u A A t J -Mokoip, in the New Plymouth district, about eighty men are employed ou a deviation,, which includes a couple of miles of deep nuttings, constructed by means of the tunnelling principle. Accidents have happened, and, under the circumstances, minor ones at. any rate, must bo expected to occur again, but tho Department, which should have thought of proper hospital appliances as soon as it decided to engage men for the work, has been petitioned for an ambulance for several months, yet it is still in the 'making' stage. It seems that an ambulanco is such an_ extraordinary thing to a railway administrator in New Zealand that it is. not stocked, but can, we are leliored to know, b» made at one of the workshops. The ambulance, which has been in process of making since last January, must be taking its turn with the latest batch of ninety-ton- engines, and will be ready for the opening of the deviation, to show an admiring public how a good Railway Department cherishes its employees. The St. John Ambulance Society came to the rescue for a time, placing an ambulanco at Mokoia,' but it was required elsewhere, and when a tunnel worker was badly crushed a few weeks ago, ho had to be taken out on a door, and removed to tho hospital by a kind resident who provides a buggy for nothing on. these occasions, having failed to get payment for past services.

is a bleak spot in winter, and the men who work in wet cuttings would appreciate a warm room and a place to dry their clothes at tho end of tho day. f ins has not been thought of. They are housed in a barracks, in which free" ventilation is tho leading feature, and if they want warmth, another blanket is the only way of getting it. They have had to petition for a common room, with fireplaces at which to dry their clothes, but why they should have to make this one of the many railway 'grievances' onlv tho hallway Department can tell."

What Railway Workers Suggest. Another article in the "Itailway Review statei:—"Some have urged vlial a jioyiu Commission would meet the case, but it' has to bo remembered that a iioyal Commission is not a permanent institution, and although if might do a good deal to get at the bottom of the present trouble mid get over the worst' ol' it lor the present, its effect' would not bo permanent, and before long tilings would drift back to the same unsatisfactory position. One weakness of the present position is (lint when a disputo arises between the Amalgamated Society and tho management regarding service conditions, (hero is only the management to appeal to against its own decision.

• "There arc too many regulations concerning servico conditions. The power of the Governor to make regulations is limited by Section OS of the Government Railways Act, 1907, and on reading its ]8 sections it does not appear to have been tho intention of Parliament that practically everything but wages should bo controlled by regulations. In any case, from our point of view, il is very desirable that a great many more of our conditions should be embodied in tho Act. A regulation can be changed at any time, but the Act can only be altered by Parliament. "Two reforms are urgently needed—First, that the whole of the service conditions be embodied in the Government .Railways Act, instead of being (as at' present) controlled by regulations which can lie altered at any time without llio consent of Parliament; second, a Grievance Board, whose decisions will bo binding on both parties. All disputes between the A.S.R.S. and the management and Minister could be referred to it. This board should have practically the same powers as the Arbitration Court, but unlike that Court, it would consist of men who understand the intricacies of railway work and methods. Such e. board could bo called together at any time it is required, and could dispose of grievances as they come along, instead of having them accumulated' for years because there is no suitable third parly to whom they can be referred for final settlement. Wo do not claim that the creation of such a board would briiiß about a permanent and complete settlement of all tho grieviinces enisling in the .service, but we do believe that if approached by lxith sides in a spirit of conciliation and moderation a great deal of good could be done in tlio direction of making tlio service more contented and improving llio velations between the management and the staff."