Minister Sceptical, Manager Enthusiastic

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 784, 3 October 1929, Page 6

Minister Sceptical, Manager Enthusiastic

WORKSHOP REORGANISATION

SAVING IN • PRODUCTION COSTS THE SUN’S Parliamentary 'Reporter WELLINGTON, Wednesday. Substantial savings in the manufacture and repair of practically the whole of the appliances necessary for the operation‘of the railways are anticipated through the reorganisation of the railway workshops throughout New Zealand. The general manager, Mr. H. H. Sterling, claims that the shops are more up to date and better equipped than any in Australia. The Minister of Railways, the Hon. W. B. Taverner, expresses doubt as to the complete efficiency of the reorganisation upon such a large scale. ' There seems to be no doubt,” the Minister said in his annual statement to Parliament today, “that with the age ot the shops—and the fact that they had developed, as was unavoidable, on more or less of a patchwork system as requirements necessitated from time to time—they had arrived at the stage when their operation could not be carried on with a degree of convenience and comfort to the staff that one would wish for. This would in Itself raise a question as to the desirability of undertaking some scheme for improving them, but it still remains to be determined whether the particular scheme that was adopted was the one that should have been undertaken. “So far as the financial results that were expected to accrue from the expenditure that has been undertaken are concerned, estimates on such a matter as that seem to me to hinge very largely on the question of the full utilisation of the shops when completed. This in turn will depend on the future requirements of the department and the ability of the country to provide the finance necessary to enable the various works to be undertaken.

“Whatever the position in regard to these matters may have been w T hen the scheme was formulated and decided upon, it is undeniable that at present it is obscure. The future expansion of the railways can hardly be as great as it has been in the past, while the pressure of other State activities on public finance will tend to make it more difficult to provide money for the railways on the same scale as has been done in the last decade. “What the actual financial result of the reorganisation will be is a matter that lies very much in the future' and depends on factors that cannot in present circumstances be determined’ with any real degree of certainty.” COMPARISONS ABROAD

Mr. Sterling says in his annual report: “Opportunity was afforded me to compare the latest workshops which have been erected in Australia with the workshops erected in New Zealand, and there is no doubt that the New Zealand workshops compare favourably in their layout and equipment with any similar establishments existing in Australia. “On final completion of the workshops the department will be in a position to manufacture the bulk of its requirements. “As a result of the reconstruction of the workshops it is confidently believed that there will be considerable savings in the manufacture and repair of practically the whole of the appliances necessary for the running of the railways.”