RAILWAY WORKERS.

Taranaki Daily News, 29 November 1915, Page 8

RAILWAY WORKERS.

BETTER CONDITIONS WANTED. CONFERENCE AT NEW PLYMOUTH. Mr. R. Hampton, president, and Mr. M. J. Mack, general secretary of the Amalgamated .Society of Railway Servants, who are at present making a tour of all branches of the Society throughout the Dominion, arrived at New Plymouth on Saturday by the mid-day train. The visit is a particularly important one in view of the desire of the executive council that the true positon regarding the attitude of the Department towards the Society concerning many matters of vital importance, should be placed before the members. One of the largest gatherings of railwaymen yet held in this district assembled at the Railway Social Hall on Sunday morning. Mr. Hampton outlined the steps that had been taken by the last conference, and subsequently by the executive council, in their endeavours to persuade the Government and the management to do something to alleviate the position of members of the railway service, and more especially the lower paid men, either by an increase of the present rates of pay, or by taking some effective steps to bring about a substantial reduction in tiie present high cost of living. Dealing with the question of the cost of living, Mr. Hampton strongly advocated linking up with outside organisations for the purpose of compelling the authorities, not by strikes, but by clear cut logical arguments, to do something to deal with those people who were unfairly fixing the prices of commodities.

Mr. Mack gave an interesting account of h'l3 recent visit to some of the. Australian States, and compared the conditions existing there' with that of the men in Xew Zealand. Dealing with local affairs, Mr. Mack asserted that the punishments meted out to meTiibers of the service under the present regime were most cruel and vicious, and in support of his assertion he quoted from official records to show that this was so. He warmly defended the attitude adopted by the Society in their endeavours to get leave of absence for apprentices who desired to enlist with the expeditionary forces, and in concluding, Mr. Mack declared that in this time of stress and trjal, when the Empire was passing through a crisis of such magnitude, it was cruel for the Department to withhold from the men that mede of justice that they were entitled to, and he claimed that the Department were not in anyway showing the same spirit that the men were doing, in « time when there should he friction. (Applause). On Saturday evening, Messrs. Hampton and Mack were entertained at a social evening. Musical items contributed by Messrs Wakefield. L. Smith, W. Key, Vale, M«Farla»e, and W. \V. Thomson was given, interspersed with the following tsasts: The King, the A.S.R.S., the K.P. branch of the A.S.R.S.. Our Comrades at the Front, the Ladies, Press, and the Chairman.