CURTAILING SERVICES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1842, 20 June 1918, Page 3

CURTAILING SERVICES.

RAILWAYS AND POSTAL WORK,

GOVERNMENT CRITICISED,

A statement regarding the curtailment of the railway services, and the more recent decision to curtail the post and telegraph services, was issued by the Wellington Trades and Labour Council on Monday. It says, after introductory remarks: —“ln our judgment, this country has now reached the stage when we must, consider seriously how much further we can go on with stripping ourselves of those workers who are of the greatest service to the community. There is a proposal to curtail the post and telegraph service, and also the railway service, for the purpose of diverting the maapower of the community to military camps. The remarkable fact is thafj private employers are allowed to keep on with their businesses very much as usual, while curtailment is being exercised in the useful and very necessary public functions of the railway and postal services.

“Very little exception might be taken to some of the proposals of the Government if it could be shown that an actual gain in efficiency bad been the result. Recently the Gov- > eminent reduced the suburban railway traffic to the great .inconvenience of a very large number of people. .Instead of reducing tho number of persons engaged in this traffic, the Government-succeeded only in stultifying a great public service, and enabling private enterprise to open up in new lines of business by* running motor services. The most remarkable example of the farcical nature of the Government’s railway policy is the cessation of the running of race trains. We make no mention here of the wisdom, or olonvise, of allowing race meetings to be held in war time. The Government had power to prohibit race meetings if it chose to do so. It has not so chosen, but it has refused to cater for the requirements of the public, with the result that whereas a couple of dozen men could cope efficiently with the requirements of passenger traffic on the railway on race days, between 500 and 1,000 men are required to drive race patrons out and back. Probably the cost is double what it would be on the railways. The wear and tear on the railways and the cost of fuel must be increased enormously. The Government has played into the hands of private enterprise, and has increased enormously the cost of travel, and has not succeeded in doing anything in the direction of curtailing the racing activities of the country. As with the railways, so with the post and telegraph and other services. Efficient and capable men have been drawn away from the public service, and the utility of State enterprise has been hampered greatly without any apparent advantage. We submit that the public services should be maintained efficiently, and that the “efficiency” so far practised by the State departments has not succeeded in doing anything useful, and has thrown discredit upon the State as to its methods and business management.”