OUR RAILWAYS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 24 November 1927, Page 3

OUR RAILWAYS

REPORT ON AMENDING BILL AGREED TO BY HOUSE. CONSTITUTION OF APPEAL BOARD. Wellington, Nov. 24 Mr J. S. Dickson (i J arnell) brought down in the House to-day the report of the Railway Committee on the Railway Amendment Bid, which they recommended be allowed }o proceed with amendments shown on a copv attached. Mr E. J. Howard (Christchurch) South), as a member of the committee, criticised the bill, taking particular exception to the proposal that officers with salaries over £765 should be appointed by the Governor-Gener-al, while all others are to be appointed, by the Minister, and he wanted to know on what principle this distinction was drawn. Further, he wondered why former officers were to have no right of appeal, while others had that right. He criticised other clauses which he opposed in committee, aha explained that his anxiety about the measure was due to his conviction that b e would, at an early date, be Minister of Railways, and he desired to see the law as pe’rfect as it was humanly possible to make it. Sir Joseph Ward (Invercargill) said he disliked very much what the House was being asked to do in the bill, and he hoped the House would bo given a full opportunity to discuss the measure. It seemed to him the Minister was being given power to bring in any outsider he liked and appoint him to any high office in the service, were he asked. Capably men with long service would be passed over by the Minister and some outsider given preference. Capable and efficient men of long service should not be passed over in the manner proposed in the bill.

THE APPEAL BOARD. Mr H. E. Holland (Leader of the Opposition) said ho had received protests from railway organisation in every part of the country against the constitution of th e Appeal Board. The provision which enabled the appointment of outsiders over the heads of tried railway servants could not bn too strongly condemned. Quite a number of measures hitting Government employees over the head with a club had been introduced .during the last days of the session. Mr AV. A. Veitch (Wanganui) sairt the proposal to appoint outsiders to high positions in the service had completely neutralised the ambition of every man in the department who desired to attain to a higher position. Mr W. E. Parry (Auckland Central) condemned the clauses dealing with appointments, because those clauses wer 0 opposed by railway organisations. HISTORY OF THE BILL. The Prime Minister said the bill would make no difference in the administration of th e Railway Department, because it only put into an Act what was already in the regulations, '..aac was now read in the regulations would, after the passing or tlie bill, be rea'd in the Act. He then proceeded to revis e the history of the bill, which arose out of a desire to ascertain how men of the Railway Department were paid in comparison with other members of the Public A board of three men accustomed to staff work was appointed, and after two years’ work they had revalued- various positions in the service and made recommendations which were now embodied in the bill. With regard to the appointment of outsiders, that would only bo done m very special cases and that had always been done. Thp Railway, Employees' Association had considered the bill, and he had no hesitation in saying that the uniformity of the service aimed at in the bill was all to the advantage of the men. With regard to the Appeal Board, he pointed out that in future the board would not deal merely with ordinary appeals, but they would deal with the reclassification of the whole service, which was something quit 0 different to anything the board had previously attempted. He- was. however, prepared to reconsider the qn< stion of the constitution of the board. The report of the committee was then agreed to.