ENGINE BUILDING.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1497, 20 July 1912, Page 6

ENGINE BUILDING.

STATE MONOPOLY SUGGESTED. MINISTER APPROACHED. TU-AMS COUNCIL PROPOSALS. The construction of all locomo.t-ivps required on the New Zealand railways in tlie Government workshops, was advocated,by a deputation from Hid Wellington Trades Council which waited yesterday upon the Hon. W. 11. Homes (Minister for Railways). -Mr. JI. J...l?eardon, president of the Trades Council, was the principal speaker. He said that his council, in common with ■oj-her similar bodies, had protested to tho •Minister's predecessor in office a<'am=4 a proposal to let a contract to the 'firm of I 1 nee Bros., Thames, for the construction I ut tew locomotives, without havhi"- provioiistj- callwt tov taulws. The cownciV ielt Unit it was rfangnrously impolitic to gne from £10,000 to .£50,00 worth, of work to any firm without at least affording other firm an opporhinitv ol o/Feriii" (o do the work for a less amount. . Vossibly there were reasons which justified the nction, but as a. general principle it seemed to be dangerous. 3Cr. J[ yCT s had stated to a former deputation that tenders hail ' been called, ■ with the result that onlv ono tender was i-ecivecd, that of Price Bros. I Qbvionsly this firm got (he norJc because it was tlie only one in a position to comI Pete. t Absence of Competition. If was generally known that there would be no competition, and it must have been ■A-nomi to Price Bros., with the result that they irero virtually euahkd- to net I thejr mm price. The Trades Council hail taken exception to the poJicv of tho Railway Department at the time, 'and took iJparticutaY ■ exception to the fact that witlun the last few months another conJiaci. for the coiustrucHon of ten locoinot ves had been let. The deputation held «fT ! mt "!? J mister VO "M Join issue with them if they suggested (hat tho Mate should invado the field of private .enterprise, but they contended that the work under review was not urivato work, but wns incidental to carrying on tho railways. In lflOt the Government had uecHied not to import any more locomo•"res irom foreign' countries.' In 1900 tli-fl_ trovernment lot a. contract for "0 engines to Price Brothers. The peculiar tiling- wai- that before this contract was called for. engines of new design were wiilt in the State workshops. Private contractors had the benefit of the. experimental work put into the original engines m.'the State workshops. The State workshops >n New Zealand, Mr. Reardon contended, "yrere capable of doing work tuat would be eminently satisfactory In the past tho difficult work had been "done in the .State workshops and the easy'work • Jn^V"'?, ,1 to oubi ' H-eportiiiff in ,190!) Mr. E. L. Beattie (Chief Mechanical Engineer) had stated that twenty new engines had bwm constructed. The report showed. 3lr. Reardon contended, that tho work requiring tho greatest skill, care, and attention had been done in tlie btato shops, whilo the easy work -practically "stock" work-had been clone by a private firm. One would bo inclined, to ask, . "Could absurdity «o further?" but it could, and had. Tho -evidence of Mr.-Jackson (one of tho Departmental engineers) given before tho Board of Inquiry in 1009 showed that work had been, actually taken from the machines in the Stalo shops in order to expedite the operations of private contractors. . It was time, Mr! Reardon admitted, that the Board.of- Inquiry had reported that, engines'built by contract were cheaper than - those built in tho State shops. But the BoaTd of infiuiry, m .wiving at its conclusion, had included in the cost of the State work items which existed only on paper. lTor instance, the Railway Workshops had been debited with a percentage for-ground rent. Tlie Board of Inquiry had state'dthat in order to "get satisfactory" results at the State shop;, it. would bo necessary to separate new work from repair work.

Specialisation Advocated. The deputation would urge that a separate workship should ho built for new work, and that Addington or Hillside should bo used exclusively for repair work. Ajiother point was that the contracts let to Price Bros. were.for ten or twenty engines, while the State workshqre were restricted to lota of four engines. Before a commission of iuquirv, in Victoria, the manager in that State had said that 25 per cent, of the cost, of locomotives would bo saved if orders' were given in lots cf ten, so that what the New Zealand Government had been doing had been to give, Prico Bros, an advantage of 25 per cent, on their contracts! .This was an age of town-plan-ning, Mr.- Eeardon Temarkcd, and the Minister had a great opportunity of carrying out the suggestion made by tho Board .of Inquiry nt Addingtom by laying down the, principle that new work should be done by the Stato itself. It amounted simply to doing your own work in your own workshop. They held that it was tho duty of the Minister for Railways to find work for private enterprise. Tho railway industry should be self-contained. '

A Question of Location.' In their opinion tiro workshops should not be built alongside one of the big centres.at all. ,If two or threo thousand acres of lajid Were taken up at a place like Woodvillo or Marton, a town could be built round the railway workshops. IE this was to bo dono it should bo dono nlmost immediately, because tho amount of machinery required by the railways was very largo and becoming larger. Tho answer to the argument that tho work was not done as cheaply in the Stato workshops was that it was dono better. This was shown by the evidence of the capable engineers who had given evidenco before tho Board of Inquiry. The Board of Inquiry had-taken tho view that if the work was separated and ono class of work <lono in each shop, the Govern-' lnent would get the results desired. This was proved by the case of points and crossings,, in which the Department had specialised, witli the result that points and crossings were manufactured ot less than contract price. It should not be the function of the Stato to find work for private employers. If tho practice of giving work to Price Bros, was continued, tho Stato would .never get the appliances required for. the construction of engines. Much of the plant owned by Price .Bros, had been introduced since they had begun to get orders from the Government.

Mr. W. T. Young said that the request of tho Trades Council was also backed up by tho Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants. Mr. Rnnayne, General Manager of Railways, had admitted, when a deputation waited upon the previous Minister for Railways, that tho Department had all tho plant necessary to enable it to build its own rolling-stock. Tho biggest engine in use mi the New Zealand lines. Mr. Young stated, was on the Main Trunk line, and lit was built at Addington workshops. I

THE MINISTER IN REPLY. WORKSHOPS FULLY 'EMPLOYED. The' Minister thnnkeiV the members nf (Aid deputation tor Hie information they had placed before- him.. With regard to general policy, he continued, he would continue the policy initiated by his prp r deces=or. of having rolling-slock built in the Dominion. With regard to doing Cic work in the Department's own work- , shop?, a* against letting it. by contract, he would have to take the opinion of hi 3 Department as a guide. He was informed that the Railwav workshops had at much ns they could possibly do to fulfil orders given to them at the'present time. In this connection the Minister supplies! the following particulars of Tolling-stock now in hand at tho various railway workshops:— Newmarket.—2-i carriages, 521 wagons and broke vnns. Petone.—ls carriages, 251 wngons and brake vans. Addington.—ls locomotives, 25 carriages, 28fi wngons and brake vans. Hillside.—2s locomotives, 2 carriages, 745 wagon? and brake vans.

A Question or Finance. Mr. Herrics went on to remark that thn Department was at present rarrying on a vpry lanro programme <if building locomotive?. With regard to Messrs'. Price Bros.. ho oould not in any way disturb con tracts niqdfl by his predecyuors. Thn qiiwli<in xaised him one el enoimops importance,

and ho could not possibly give nny ilefinito .reply until ho had 'looked into (ho matter. Tlio question of bavin.-; now workshops erected in a central place w.is also of great importance, and ln> must havo liroe to consider it. The whole question so far as lie could fee was one of v £ p. d. If Ilia Minister for Railways could get unlimited resource?, it would bo easy to do a. great deal, lint in Hio present stato of the money market any proposal" for large expenditure on workshops would probably bi> vetoed by the Minister for A'inancc. Ho would bo glad to adopt a forward policy, and intended to do eo, but the. financial aspect could not be ignored. Sir. Young: lou will havo to yet a State Bonk. . • Mr. Ifc-rries: You will have to po on a deputation to tlio Minister for Finance about that. Implying to another suggestion by Mr. liea.rdon, (he Minister promised to loo;: into tlio question of paying casuals employed by tho Kailway Department at tlio samo rates as were paid by private employers, and laid down by the Arbitration Court. Ho was under tke impression, \\e stated, 'that this was do no already.