GOVERNMENT STROKE.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9352, 22 January 1909, Page 4

GOVERNMENT STROKE .

INDIGNATION AT ADDINGTON.

Per Press Association Dunedin, January 21. - At a meeting of the Otago Boilermakers 1 Union the allegations concerning the “Government stroke’’' methods at the Addington workshopswere discussed. It was stated that boilermakers’ work was being done by labourers at Hillside, hence" the work was cheaper there than at Addington. The Minister of Railways is to be asked to make full inquiry into the allegations concerning Hillside. ' Christchurch, January 21. During their half-hour’s luncheon: adjournment to-day over three hundred of the men employed at Addington Railway Workshops held a meeting to discuss the General Manager’s letter to ’the Chief Mechanical Engineer at Wellington, forwarded to the workshops manager, whichpassed severe strictures upon the methods under which the work at the Addington shops was carried out. The chairman of the meeting said it was by no means with feelings of pleasure that he had consented te preside and address the men. They were gathered' to consider the General Manager’s letter, and he thought if they allowed it to go forth uncontradicted they would be considered throughout the Dominion -aye, and throughout the* world —as anything but men. (Applause). They had seen the letter in the newspaper for the first time. (A voice: It’s a lot of rot). For the benefit of those who had not / seen it he would read what the manager thought of them. Having, read the letter, the speaker said they were not present to go into ,the question of whether the charges were true or not. They were there to say whether they would remainunder the stigma or prove themselves men and demand an inquiry. It

was no use getting excited. The question was whether they would:, lay down to it or stand up for their rights. The simplest method would be to demand an inquiry into the charges made by Mr Ronayne. The mattsr was not so much one of the. opinion of a consulting engineer or the greatest engineer the railways had got. The point was that their good name was being stolen. There was no need for a drastic resolution, but merely for one demanding aa immediate inquiry. One of the men moved:—-That this meeting of railway employees at Addington Workshops demands (hat the fullest inquiry be made into the charges made by a so-called expert engineer, as mentioned in the General Manager’s letter, and that a copy of the resolution be forwarded to the Minister of Railways. The motion was seconded, and in the course of the subsequent discussion one of the speakers eaid”they wanted a public inquiry before a magistrate, not before departmental officers or anyone else, and that Mr Ronayne should bring his informant face to face with the men. The motion was carried unanimously and the meeting dispersed with cheers for the chairman. The men in all departments at Addington are surprised and indignant at the charges made against severed divisions. Mr Ronayne’s letter came as a perfect bombshell among them, there being not the slightest indication given previous that such serious dissatisfaction was entertained at headquarters. Some of the more impetuous of the hands among

whom a reporter moved during lunch time were babbling over with explanations and assertions indicating the baselessness cf the charges,, but the older bands displayed more discretion and preferred (in view of an inquiry being held) to emulate the example of Brer Rabbit and keep their information for a properly constituted tribunal. However, it is easy to glean that something is behind the. present trouble, and the general impression is that a more serious breach between the administrative and executive heads has occurred, and that search is being made for a scapegoat. Wanagnui, January 21. Mr W. A. Yeitcb, President of the Amalgamated Railway Servants, interviewed re the trouble at Addington, said that after twenty years service in the Railway Department be could honestly say that the class of locomotives turned out by the New Zealand workshops was superior both for efficiency and workmanship, to imported euignes. As t>o the pro posed inquiry, Mr Yeitcb said if its scope is only wide enough and if it is made independently, being conducted by gentlemen outside the Raiway Department, instead of by Departmental officials, the men would have nothing to fear. As to» the “Government strobe”, he stated as a curious ffaot that everywhere throughout the Dominion he had come across ex-employees of the Railway Department whose {services, were eagerly sought by private employers because of the strenuous, way they went about there work. In conclusion, Mr Yeitcb said the s Amalgamated Society had ample funds available for the defence of members. '