GREY LOCO POSITION

Hokitika Guardian, 13 August 1926, Page 1

GREY LOCO POSITION

MR COATES IN REPLY. TO THE ST A Ll'’ PROTEST. [BY TKLEOIIAril —PER PRESS ASSOC lAT lON .j WELLINGTON, Am:. 12. An interesting reference to New Zealand's railway rolling stork was made by the Prime .Minister in the House tli is afternoon. All* T. IT Y. .Seddon asked if the attention of the Minister had been drawn ! to statements appearing in the “l.oco- ' motive Engineers Journal” alleging an ! unsafe condition of the railway engines * ill use on the West Coast,..and stating i that all hands were seething with dis- : content, and were not going to, .put. wp | much .longer with the conditions under ! which they were working. The men com plained- that the coal was cf..such a nature that it- Wqs. almost impossible lo use it oil the engines, and they said that the engin.es .were obsolete, and were often imbraked,. Further, it was said .that a new Depot was.badly wanted, and that, with the existing Depot, there was not sufficient shelter to house all the engines. There were serious allegations about the conditions under which the men worked. These things, Mr Seddon contended, should bo looped into, becauso tlje safety of the travelling public was at stake. Mr Coates said that his attention had been drawn to the publication. The Department was quite well aware of the conditions on the Coast, and to say that the Department of the Minister were satisfied wftli them would be wrong. That- applied particularly to the facilities for housing engines and rolling stock. The matter which had been published, stated the Prime Minister, ignored entirely the programme of improvement that had boon set out in 1924. Authority had been taken to carry out the programme. They intended to build a round engine shed at C'reymoutli. The work had been under consideration, and it would bo done as it was found possible to undertake it. lie could assure all concerned that it was intended materially to improve the facilities, so that the men could work under much better conditions. Tt was recognised that the conditions were not satisfactory, and it was the Government’s intention to give the Railway Department every chance to carry ont its programme according to schedule. Ho did not know that they would be abjle to keep exactly to schedule, but they would keep as near as they could. The men ought to know that this was the position, because they had been taken into the confidence of the Department, in this, as in other matters. Mr Seddon: “What about the engines are often unbraked?” " Air Coates said that it was possible they had a. number of engines that wero not up-to-date, but they had use what rolling stock they had. They' could not. ho said, dump everything over the end of the wharf at once. The men would have to put up nith them and make the- best of tilings. He was convinced that wo wanted no move engines from outside New Zealand. He thought that, when our shops were completed, wo could build all our rolling stock here with the assistance of one or two shops which were not State-owned. Meantime, the men must be asked to do the best they could with what they had, and the Department would take every reasonable opportunity of seeing that the rolling stock was safe for traffic.