PROFESSIONAL MEN.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVI, Issue 4813, 20 February 1925, Page 3

PROFESSIONAL MEN.

SALARIES TOO SMALL. DIFFICULTY IN NEW ZEALAND. "1 have ljsen frequently asked why I have not accepted an appointment in Australia or New 1 Zealand,” istated Mr Charles Travis,' who was secretary to the recent Railway Commission, and who is on his way to England, via Canada, being a passenger on the Makura, which reached Auckland on Monday. Mr Travis said his answer was that professional men are underpaid in this part of) the world, when one compared the salaries offered with those paid in Biitain and in other countries. - He had seen girls in Australia engaged in rolling up chocolates at salaries ranging from £8 10s a week to £9. Labourers were better paid than trained professional men, and .he thought the claim that New Zealand was the working man’s paradise was fully justified. Mr Travis, who is associate editor of the “British Railway Gazette,” and editor of the “British Railway Engineer,” said tiie. New Zealand railways were excellent, considering the conditions and difficulties. There were twenty times more bridges and tunnels here than in Australia. In Western Australia, for example, there was -only one tunnel. He considered the trans-continental train from Brisbane to Perth the finest train in Australia. Touching on the narrow gauge on the Dominion railways, Mr Travis said that it itself was not a handicap to big waggons, large cars, and high speed. New Zealand ra-iL wavs certainly required a good deal of regrading, because # speed ( was a question of curves and grades, and if changes were made in this direction there would be a general speeding tin and improvement of the system.