APPEALS FROM THE BALLOT

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2979, 17 January 1917, Page 6

APPEALS FROM THE BALLOT

RAILWAY CASES

TRAINS FOR THE RACES

By Telegraph—Press Association. Creymouth, January 16. At the sitting of the Military Service Board, Mr. Hessell, traffic clerk, instructed by the General Manager, asked tbe board to exempt local railway servants drawn in the ballot, on the ground that they were required to efficiently carry on the work of the railways. The section had had thirteen firemen training for the position of drivers, ten of whom had enlisted and gone to the front and cleaners moved up in their places. There were only three boiler-makers in the "Westland section, and they were indispensable for work on the West Coast railways of an absolutely essential nature.

The chairman (Mr. Evans, S.'M.) remarked that the last two Appeal Boards had spoken adversely in regard to race trains. He asked if such affected the work of the AVest Coast staffs.

Mr. Hessell replied that the railways hero carried principally coal and timber. Last year the • local train lines carried two tonsiof minerals-;for every one passenger, while the timber'hauled amounted to over fifty-one million feet. It was impossible to reduce the staif further without impairing the efficiency of the service.

The chairman remarked that the board did not presume to dictate to the management how to run its business, while not going so far as to express an opinion that race traiDS shoU's be abolished, the board held that sports generally, where they entailed extra work on eligible men and unproductive expenditure, as'well.as waste time, should he curtailed. Race trains appeared to have an unimportant bearing on the West Coast railways. .

All tho railway appeals so far dealt with have been adjourned sine die.