AUSTRALIAN RAILWAYS

Shannon News, 9 November 1926, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN RAILWAYS

. NEW SOUTH WALES LINE. ALTERING THE MANAGEMENT. i SYDNEY, Oct. 29. Of the, Government’s measures which are likely to (have a stormy passage through Parliament, there Is notable the bill altering radically the laws relating to the management of the railways. The present commissioners are obviously not popular with those in power and their Parliamentary supporters. This is clear from the questions which ,are asked from the Labour benches on the floor of the House.

The fact that both the railways and tho tramways show a loss, due largely to the 44 hours and other Government, enactments and that, instead of reductions in freight and fares being practicable, the commissioners have been obliged to ask for increases, has not served to strengthen the position of the Chief Commissioner, Mr. Frazer, and his colleagues. Under the original Railway Act they were invested with the powers of independent control. One of the proposed reforms is to make the. A ppeal Board independent of and superior to the commission. Another of the propose als is to appoint one commissioner a representative' of-the employees. • The proposal to' gave the employees executive power over this huge enterprise, calling essentially for purely business management, when the men already have access to an Arbitration Court of their own choosing, and a Labour Government at their backs, as well as benefits which are afforded by law and custom, to railway employees hag aroused hostility in the antilabour ranks. It is fairly obvious that if an employees’ commissioner wants to make himself popular and retain a cosy job, he will have to concern himself, primarily, with the pay and conditions of those whose mouthpiece he is in the service. If he does not do this, it will be both impolitic on. his part and unnatural.