The Globe FRIDAY, APRIL 28, 1876.

Globe, Volume V, Issue 580, 28 April 1876, Page 2

The Globe FRIDAY, APRIL 28, 1876.

The great problem of “ How not to “ do it ” has been solved, so far as the management of the Canterbury Railways is concerned. Not content with putting the public to any amount of vexatious delays and pecuniary losses, the Provincial Public Works Department has harassed the hands engaged on the line aud in the sheds to such a degree that a strike was brought about. When we say that the men were harassed, that conclusion is confirmed by the acceptance of the Provincial Executive of the terms proposed by the men. The cause of the strike was that the men did not receive any payment for overtime, that is to say, time worked over eight hours per day, and they stated that sometimes they had to work many hours a week beyond their proper time without compensation. The explanation on the part of the management was that it was the intention to pay overtime, &c, &c. We are in a position to know that had the Department acceded earlier to the appeals of the hands, that all the inconvenience and loss to the public through this piece of provincial bungling, would have been averted; and even now we have neither to thank the Provincial Executive nor the men, but a private citizen, Mr Stead, who, surpassing Alexander, did not cut, but untied this Gordian knot. It appears that the actual differences have been made up, and like the two naughty little boys who have been fighting, they have promised not to do so any more. The men have deputationed, and the Executive has received, and given way, at the same time supporting its dignity by not admitting the first clause as to marked men, but inferring that at the end of the meeting it would salve the matter over —which was done. Now all this rubbing of noses is quite right and proper between the two parties to the agreement, but we are of opinion that there is a third party who should have a voice in these proceedings, namely the public. Well, thepublic havehad deputations through the Chamber of Commerce, with what success is known. The public cannot get a through train from Lyttelton in the morning. The public cannot get their luggage nor their goods from Lyttelton excepting in detached portions, as we are in a position to affirm. It is of no use employing circumlocution to arrive at the fact that the wholo of the Canterbury lines are at the disposal of an Executive and management which not only does its utniost to put the travelling public

to the extreme limit of inconvenience, but has the supreme effrontery to expect the sufferers to smile and look pleasant. There is something so exceedingly pitiful in the loss of dignity which the Executive has sustained in this contest, that we should have probably not referred to the matter had it been a question that was confined to employer and employed, but this is one of the circumstances which stands out as a beacon, pointing unerringly to the direction, wherein may be found incompetency for organisation, coupled with that official incapacity necessary to effect revolutions in the old-fashioned business habits, of forethought, punctuality, and civility. We are not prepared to say that the men were justified in this strike, although we admit that, in some cases, extreme measures are necessary, and that in this instance they may be pardonable, but we believe that, had a statement of their grievances been circulated through the medium of the press, that the whole of these, to say the least of them, unpleasant proceedings might have been obviated and some hundreds of pounds saved to the public.