MANAGING RAILWAYS

Hokitika Guardian, 16 August 1930, Page 8

MANAGING RAILWAYS

REFORM'S EXPENSIVE

CHANGES

The. high cost of managing the State railways during the Reform Government’s regime was made clear by Mr Vincent' Ward, the , United .candidate for the Invercargill seat, when he was addressing a'meeting .of railway employees last Monday. *' ’ Mr Ward said that in the. old Liberal days the General, Manager pf Railways received £I2OO per annum. Reform .came into power and paid an imported man'£3soo a year. When his term expired Reform paid a. New Zealander £3o(jO per ,an,iium, but overlooked the fact that tlie local man would receive £2OOO per ..'annum superannuation. He had now been receiving that isum for sqme, year.Sj. , , It-: was, genqralh r ,understood that. .ltefoifin had ifalFenf imt with that man, for it appointed a board of ,three, men.i., who,X'oukbmot.agree, among themselves nor with the Minister. After three years Reform got rid of the board members, who retired on superannuation aggregating £2500 a year. Then Mr Coates appointed the present general Manager under contract for seven years, at £3500 a year, with supernnpuatiqn at. £2OOO a year when his term expired. After the Fay-Raven Report Mr Coates had appointed two more men, one at £I2OO a year, the other at £1()00. The former was an engineer, with, a contract for five years. The' contract had expired during the term of the president Government, and it had notjfieen renewed.

Mr Coates 'now suggested a board of governors to run the railways. That meant that there would have to be niori} big salaries, in addition to that being paid to the present general manager, ■ If all these men he had mentioned were alive when the present general retired a new man wou'd have to be appointed, and the result would be a cost to the country of approximately £1.0,000 a year to keep one man on the job. .