THE RAILWAY SERVICE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8538, 19 September 1907, Page 5

THE RAILWAY SERVICE.

RECENT ALLEGATIONS.

STATEMENT BY THE MINISTER.

(By Telegraph—Parliamentary Correspondent).

WELLINGTON, Wednesday. In the House of Representatives, this afternoon, Mr Okey asked the Acting Minister for Railways (Sir J. G. Ward) whether his attention had been called to a Press Association message originating, at Auckland showing that there appears to be great dissatisfaction among the employees in the railway service, and will he make full enquiries into the facts of the case, so that the public may know the ful! state of affairs? The following is the message referred to: "Dissatisfaction in the Railway Service. (Per Press Association.) Auckland, Saturday night.— 'Great unrest prevails in the railway service, and the feeling is growingthat a full enquiry should immediately be held into the men's grievances. 'From one end of New Zealand to the other,' said a prominent official tc-day. 'resignations are being sent in so fast that it will soon,be case of the railways being run by the inexperienced and incapable.. (Many of the best men are leaving,, and from the way things are going onnow the service will be left with, boys and those who cannot get a jobelsewhere.' Questions put to various men in different branches elicited thereply that the cause of dissatisfaction was the long hours the men wererequired to be on duty and the small rate of pay received —a rate that in these days of higher cost of livingwas nothing like adequate remuneration for the work performed." The Premier replied ai follows : My attention has been directed to the various statements that have recently appeared in the Press respecting the dissatisfaction among railway employees. These statements require, however, to be received with great caution. Where a large staff, of men is concerned, such as the New Zealand Railway staff, which numbers about eleven thousand, it must be expected that some greivances are bound to exist. Where, however, these are represented they are gone into as closely as possible and reasonable relief is given. It is not correct to say that great unrest prevails in Ihe service, and the statement that "resignations are being sent in so fast that the railways will be run by the inexperienced or incapable" is an unwarrantable exaggeration. There are cases where capable railway officers have token up lucrative positions in other walks of life, but the same may be said of officers in every other State Department and also of smart men in priyate employ who from time to time are offered better positions than those they occupy, and they consequently accept the offers. The great bulk of the men who leave the railway service are, however, men who have been en probation, and have failed to give satisfaction, or who during the probationary period find the railway work distasteful, and leave to take up other employment. There is no dearth of experienced officers and men in-the lailway service, and the great bulk of the officers and men now in the service will, I have no doubt, remain therein until they are eligible for retirement under the Government Railways Superannuation Fund Act.