MATTERS ON THE RAILWAY.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4385, 9 April 1875, Page 3

MATTERS ON THE RAILWAY.

There is no reason to suppose that the accident that occurred yesterday morning at the Wellington station of the Hutt railway, fortunately without 10.-s or damage, had any connection whatever with the discontent and the unsatisfactory arrangemeuts that exist there at present. Its occurrence, however, gives point to the remarks we made on Wednesday, that for the number of hours the men are employed and the many trains that run between sunset and sunrise, a serious accident may occur at any moment. • "We may take the occasion to state what the grievances of the employes on the station are, so far as we have been able to ascertain. In the first place it is alleged that the conditions on whicli they originally entered the service of the Government have been broken, and that the expectations then held out to them have been taken away by the present management. Then, to run four trains a day each way may be considered a sufficient tax upon the small staff of officials, seeing that it comprises only one engineer and stoker, a guard, and a couple of porters, but the management has determined upon more being done. The time during which this staff' was employed up to the beginning of the present month was about twelve hours a day, and the running of a fifth train does not extend the time by many minutes, but it has the effect of preventing either engineer or stoker having an opportunity of leaving the engine at auy period of the day, either for breakfast or dinner. It is impossible that men placed in a responsible condition, charged not merely with the care of valuable property, but with the lives of the passengers by train, can sustain week after week so great a demand upon their physical powers. It will be remembered that these men have no holidays,; and that on the English, and, we believe, on those Australian lines ou which trains are run on Sundavs, provision is made by which the men can at least enjoy alternate Sundays at home, or in any other way they please. On these occasions the duties of the persons in charge of trains is more than ordinarily responsible, because then larger numbers of passengers than usual travel, and the limited resources of the railway are taxed to the utmost. Here, however, no provision is made by which any of the employes can be relieved, on any day in the week, and thus their week consists of seven days, from month to month, without break. Even this severe toil might be endured for a time if the remuneration was adequate. But the pay of the engine-driver is only eleven shillings per day. It is pointed out that the same rate of pay, at least, is obtainable from private employers, for a day of eight hours ; and that over-time is paid at the rate of time-and-a-quarter, or time-and-a-half, or even double time, according to the period of the four-and-twe'nty hours of the day at which the extra work is done. No such allowance, however, is made in the railway department, and eleven shillings per day is made to cover twelve hours of constant and responsible work —work which requires not only special mechanical education, but watchfulness, skill, and a constant sense of responsibility. The fireman is even worse situated, for his hours are necessarily somewhat longer than those of the engineer, for whom he has to prepare the engine; his anxiety can scarcely be less as to the safety of the train; and his special duties are both arduous and unpleasant. Yet he is only paid nine shillings per day for twelve or thirteen hours of work, in which there is no proper interval for meals—a rate of wage worse than that of men who work on the wharf and quays, —who, for comparatively irresponsible labor, readily earn their shilling per hour. The porters, as we have said, are but two in number, and their hours are about the same as those of the engine-driver and stoker. And their time is almost as fully occupied. They have to see to the arrangement of the early trains, and the disposal of the late ones. They have the station to look after, and the responsible charge of the goods in the stores. They have the goods to look after, as well as to assist in managing the passenger traffic ; and they have to see to the signals and points for all the trains which pass up and down. These duties, it might be thought, were sufficient to engage amply the time°of the two men who do the duty ; but the responsibility as well as the labor has been enormously increased since the contractor's trains have begun to run on the mile or halfmile between the point, near the property of the Hon. W. B. Bhodes, where they load ballast for the work of reclamation that has now been begun, and the station. The whistle of the locomotive, in fact, i 3 now to be heard at Pipitea Point, at all hours, from dawn to dark. But this extra work has not been accompanied by any extra pay or allowance, and these porters—on whom the duty of signalling and managing the points devolves, to say nothing of their other work—are paid the very small sum of six shillings per day : in other words, sixpence per hour, or about the sum that a newsboy earns by an hour's work in the morning or evening in delivering the journals of the city to subscribers. It is obvious that this 13 not remuneration which will induce good and reliable men to remain in the service ; while the public who travel have the right to feel that they ran no risk while they travel by the line from the incompetency of an inferior class for even this species of work being employed, as well as Irom the amount of endurance the men are called upon to show, by houra of labor so severe, protracted over the entire seven days of the week. Complaint is also made—and for this there certainly should be no room that the salaries of the men, small as they are, are not paid with common and business-like promptitude. For some months past from nine to eighteen days have been allowed to elapse between pay-day and the actual payment of the amounts due. This, we need scarcely remark, is felt as a great hardship, especially by careful men, who are probably members of building societies, or of some friendly society, to which payments have to bo paid punctually, under the penalty of an immediate and heavy fine. These are the circumstances out of which the unpleasant state of matters that now exists on the line have arisen ; and the complaints of the men are said to have been aggravated by the manner in which they have been received when laid before the manager in more immediate charge of the line. ° That, however, in a matter with which, perhaps, the public have nothing to do. What we are concerned for is the safety of the people who travel by the Wellington and Masterton railway, which certainly is endangered by the smallness of the pay of, and the Inordinate amount of work exacted from, the small working-staff at Pipitea Point.