N.Z. RAILWAYS

Hokitika Guardian, 7 February 1925, Page 4

N.Z. RAILWAYS

APPOINTMENTS FROM OUTSIDE. THE .MEN S VIEWPOINT. The last issue of the "New Zealand Railway Officers’ Advocate ” has some critcism.s to make editorially upon recent apooiutments to the service: - “ In our issue ol September last, states the ‘‘Advocate,” " we remarked (adversely) upon the appointment of a person from outside the Railway Service to a position which, in our opinion, could have boon quite capably filled |, v a New Zealand-trained railwayman. Since then, several appointments to positions in the Service, all ol people who had not previously been employed in railways, have been made.

" According to the last DM placed lie lore Parliament by the Minister of Railways, there were about 1(1,000 persons employed by the Department at March HI. 1921. Notwithstanding this fact. Cabinet has considered it necessary to go outside the Service to obtain people to undertake what, when all is said and done, is purely transport work, or, in other words, ‘ railway work, in this country. We do not look on this question from only the point of view of the particular class of railway men, whose views are represented by this journal—our consideration of it goes much deeper than that. Ihe matter affects not only the present members of the institute, but, as well, those who in years to come may become members of the organisation.

"Take, for example, the appointment of a•“ retired farmer’ to a position in the Service. Had the railways no suitable man? It is possible, of course, that there "as not one available at the moment in the First Divsion of the Service, although we felt very doubtful of the truth of this. If, however, there was no member of the First Division of the Railway Service available, what about the many hundreds of men

a 1,,, h.ne levied their Inn- a: appion Hers iii the railway workshops Should they not have been considered

A certain amount of training in the railway workshops, or in engineering works of similarly recognised standing, is insisted upon in the case of engineering students attending the Canterbury College, the recognised school of engineering in New Zealand. Due would ,surely imagine, then, that a man who had had a full training in all-round mechanics would he better equipped to take control of a motor auxiliary service run by the Railway Department than one who had served his time

as tt farmer. However, this is a matter that will he more fully discussed at a later date. At the moment we will content ourselves with dealing with the appointment of .Mr S. E. Fay to the newly-created position ol manager of the operations brunch of the railways. " We have nothing against Air hay personally; he may he, and quite possibly is, competent to carry out the duties attaching to the position to which he has been appointed. But wo tiro

tirod of 11 10 policy that seems to have recently been adopted I>v the Govoniment to the eflect that ‘a (railway) prophet lias no honour in his own country.’ Wo are leeling tired, too, of a commission that is brought to the country, at a very considerahle cost, to endorse, apparently, the views previously expressed by one ol the meinhers of the Cabinet (in effect, it would almost seem, to do a bit ol whitewashill”;). We are more than tired—we are disgusted —to know that faithful and efficient service in the Railway Department counts as 110111111” with the Government of the day as compared with ‘ dad's’ recommendation of his hoy. ‘•We do not wislv to he misunderstood. We know very little about -Mr S. F, Ray, hut what we do know is not to his discredit. Nevertheless, we want to know, and will continue to ask until we are informed, why our New Zealand trained railwayman are not considered by Cabinet to be competent to carry on the work ol the Railway Department as set out by the Government ?

“We have certainly noted that -Mr | Fay served in the Great War for two years. Tie deserves credit for this, of course. But many New Zealand vailwavmcn, of no greater ago than Mr Fay served for over four years in the same war—why should his two years count against their four and a half or so? And some of our men (Second as well as First Division) controlled railway ‘operating branches’ with distinction at the front. Why should not they be given a chance? Dir Rav, it is true, had the magic title ol ‘major’ to his name, whilst our Now Zealand men, so far as our information goes, could but boast of ‘sergeant’ or at the most, “sergeant-major.” But they delivered the goods all the same, and if our present-day Imperialistic Government has not yet realised this, it is time it did. The great majority of the railway employees joined up more with a view to the ultimate position to which they might rise than with any regard to remuneration received at the time ol their entering the Service. To-dny a number find that the positions to which they aspired are being given to strangers to the Service ; in some cases, indeed, strangers to the country. The discontent that the Government’s action in this matter has caused throughout the Service is very noticeable, and is being reflected in the attitude of all railwavmen towards their work, as Indeed must inevitably be the case.”