TRAMWAYS AND ELECTRICAL ENGINEER.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 February 1918, Page 3

TRAMWAYS AND ELECTRICAL ENGINEER.

APPEAL BY BORWGIJ COUNCIL. | At the sitting of the No. 1 Wellington! District Military Appeal Board yesterday appeals "by the Now Plymouth Borough Council on behalf of Russell Howard Bartloy, tramways manager, and William Henry Huggett, electrician, Were heardOn the application of Mr. .T. 11. Quilliiun. who appeared for the Council, the cases were taken together. Mr. Quilliam stated that Mr- Bartley was regarded a 9 the more essential. P.- T. Bcllringer, town clerk, New Plymouth. deposed that the borough was appealing on behalf of both appellants, Mr- Bartley was engineer of the electricity department and enginee. and manager of the tramways department. He was also working on the preliminary work in connection with a scheme for the extension of the water power, rendered necessary bv needs of tjie electrical power The electrical department involved a capital of. £70,511, and there were at the end of March 1874 consumers. In the tramways department the capital expenditure was £55 05"> 19s 6d. The populatioh of the borough was 8700 and it was ■estimated that 8000 were served by the trams. Owing to the war the staff had been seriously depleted. This meant that some inexperienced men had to be employed, entailing closer supervision. Not only had men left, them to go to the war, but had left to fill other positions. There was also a difficulty in obtaining coal and oil for fuel, and, as a result, firms that had used steam were now connected to the electrical works. Included in the number Was the freezing works. They had called applications to fill Mr. Huggett's position at a salary of £230, and had received one application that was unsuitable. Mr. Hnggett was superintendent of the distributing station, and in charge of all plant and plant repairs, being really second to the engineer. ■Russell Howard Bartley deposed that appellant Huggett liad been in the council's employ for six years. He was in charge of the distributing station, the plant, the staff and occasionally did j shift work They were now understaffjed. Including the tramway staff their full staff was 48. It was possible to carry on with 46 without overtime. At present the staff was 42. The full staff of the electrical' department was 15, the minimum normal staff being 12, and they now had eleven. They were now four men short but had been three short for six or eight months. Mr- Huggett was a fully trained electrical and mechanical engineer of about 17 years' experience, and his place could, only be filled by an expert, 'but, unfortunately, experts were not now procurable. Owing to the shortage of labor through the war they had youths employed where men were formerly employed, and it would be impossible to safely employ them without senior supervision. Mr. Huggett had had no holidays during the past year. During the last two months hia average hours would 'be fully 13 per day including Sundays. He had no one else capable of taking Mr. Iluggett's place. It was only on account of Huggett's ability that th'ev were able to carry on with the inefficient staff. If Mr. Huggett left it would mean that the men would be working without supervision. which would mean danger to themselves, danger to the plant, disorganisation of the system and the throwing out of the industries dependent on the supply. He understood the council was only appealing 1 tor himself, Mr. Huggett and an'othei:. There were now 2500 consumers, and these were increasing every day, owing to the difficulty of, obtaining and the increasing cost of other fuel. During the last, six months they were supplying power to the freezing works, which required more than they were giving. They also had applications from other firms for power, but could not at present accede to them. Botli appeals were adjourned sine die.