THE RAILWAYS.

Taranaki Daily News, 29 January 1920, Page 6

THE RAILWAYS.

THE COST OF.MANAGEMENT. WHAT THE DEMANDS INVOLVE. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, Jan. 28. At to-day's sitting of the New Zealand railway servants' Inquiry Board, J. Mac Donald, assistant-general manager of railways, replied to the A.S.R.S. case. He said he was glad to acknowledge the fairness and courtesy-of the representatives of that society. The Department recognised that tile society was actuated by fair and honorable motives. The society's/'.aims were not what the officers o: the Department regarded as reasonable. The capital involved in the railways was roughly £40,000.000. Interest on the national debt was about £4 2s per cent. The Railway Department was trustee to the public and must carry on with the object of obtainhi"- a return on capital invested in the railways, and to ensure that the public Would be called upon at the most to meet a minimum charge to make up any deficiency. All stores had advanced in prices phenomenally since 1913, and were fitil rising. Coal alone cost £ IST) 000 more in 1919 than in 1914. Other' essential stores had risen up to as much as 400 per cent, above pre-war prices The gravity of the situation was accentuated by the demands of the A.S. R.S., which would entail an extra expense of £1,100,000. The Department aped to fair rates of pay, and had already gone a long way in That direction. Those rates compared more than favorably with rates in adjacent States Mr. Mac Donald referred to the rises and bonuses given by the Department to meet the cost of living, and maintained that the occasion did not justify the further applications. He submitted that the present rates complied with the conditions of a fair and leasonable wage claimed by the society. This was a basic wage of 12s and a' bonus of Is a day. Since then the cost of livin" according to the index figures, had only advanced three per cent. The basic wage claimed for unskilled labor was Is 9Jd an hour and represented an ircrease of 11 per cent, on rates made previously He pointed out that the hours of work were 44 per week, and overtime claimed by the society would materially raise the payof men in the traffic branch. Referring to the assertion that an unusually large number of men were leaving the service, Mjr. Mac Donald said the experience of the Department was that of other employers, that men since the war were seriously unsettled and were restlessly changing occupations.