THE ADDINGTON INQUIRY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 453, 6 April 1909, Page 3

THE ADDINGTON INQUIRY.

The public withdrawal by Mr Rooayne of his “ Govern men" stroke ” allegations regarding Addington workshops, and the Hon. E. ! Jenkinsou’s part in the episode is dealt with by the railway servants’ official journal this month. It states: —’Hardly had the Addington Comission of Inquiry opened when the allegations made against the men were publicly withdrawn by Mr T. Ronayne, General Manager of Railways, the author of that circular which we in our last issue appropriately, as it turned out, styled- a boomerang. Certainly the rash and unfounded allegations have recoiled with a vengeance upon the General Manager. He makes absolutely no attempt to support any single statement in the circular, and merely pleads that they were practically the statements of the “expert engineer,” who has now come into the light, and is none other than an ex-boilermaker, translated to that dignified pedestal of rest, the Legislative Council. ....

If there was a grain of truth in the.allegations of loafing, the interfering methods of such an individual could be at once blamed, for there is nothing so damaging to discipline or efficiency as the belief that only favouritism tells with the management. The Hon. J. E. Jenkinson, with kindly condescension, we are sure, made ‘favourable reports ’ to the Chief Mechanical Engineer regarding certain Addington employees. He is a legislator, and his opportunity for criticism or praise is on the floor of the Legislative Council, where all men may judge of the weight of his argument. His interest in the Addington men may be genuine,#- but he adopted a most extraordinary method of demonstrating it.”