RETRENCHMENT.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 2343, 16 July 1887, Page 2

RETRENCHMENT.

(CoSTIXCEO.) Railway Department. TO THE ElirrOß. •-hi, —ln this department my remarks as to the Government placing more trust in their employes apply with greater force than in the “ Public Works Department,” as about one-third of the staff is employed a - spies upon the honesty or integrity of the other two-thirds, who, knowing that they arc not trusted, lose their interest in their work, and heroine careless, feeling that there is no res|>ousiliility resting on them. If an engine-driver wants a few pounds of tallow, or cotton waste, or a gallon of oil, he has to make out a requisition on a printed form, which is forwarded to the locomotive foreman, who makes his remarks on it, and forwards it on to the engineer, who remarks upon it, and forwards it to the storekeeper, who, if approved, forwards the articles required, perhaps a week or more afterwards, when a number of other forms and receipts have to be signed, these forms costing nearly as much as the articles asked for ; whereas, the custom on English railways is to issue monthly nr weekly a fixed quantity of oil, tallow, waste, 4c., to each engine-driver, together with a daily supply of coal or coke, according to the number of miles travelled by the engine and the weight of its train, and the drivers are allowed a bonus for all their savings from that lived quantity, and if they exceed it they have to pay for the excess ; hut they are supplied on their own order direct from tiic storekeeper, and the articles are charged to each engine direct, thus saving all the forms and checks adopted in this department, and which cause useless and harassing clerical work on men who, with greasy and dirty hands, arc not accustomed to so much writing, and detest the necessity for it. So much for the locomotive department, which is generally under the control of a gentleman receiving a salary of, say, £4OO per annnm, who knows nothing at all about the mechanism of an engine, but who has to trust everything about details to the locomotive foreman, who receives, say. Ids per day, and has all the work to do. I was told an amusing anecdote a short time ago of one of thes £IOO per annum gentlemen, who was told by the locomotive foreman that one of the engines was not beating truly, as her throttle valve was out of order, on which he (not knowing where the throttle valve was) ordered the foreman to get it repaired ; this necessitated the blowing off of her steam, and cooling down her boiler. The foreman took her into the engine-shed, and was busy regulating the valves when the £IOO per annnm gentlemen came into the shed, in a towering passion, to know why the engine could not go out at once with the train. On being told that he himself had ordered the engine to he repaired, be a-k. d the foreman, *• Why the d 1 he iiad not told him where the throttle valve was, and that it would necessitate the cooling down of the boiler?” Never dreaming for a moment that he himself ought to have know n where it was, and what was necessary to Ia- done to get at it. These arc the kind of men on which retrenchment could be exercised with advantage.

Then as to the department generally, the colony cannot be compared with any of tiie Australian colonies whose railways all rim into one centre and are all worked iiom that centre. But they may be worked very much more economically than at present by decentralising their management to a certain extent am! placing more trust ami responsibility in the hands of the local managers ; Say for instance that a manager for the Auckland district, had full charge of all the railways north of Auckland, and southwards to Rotorua and Taranaki. He being held solely responsible for the proper management, and for all his subordinates of whom he should have the appointment, and an engineer for constructed railways for the same district, who should be solely responsible for the proper repair of all the lines in his district. and having the appointment of all his necessary subordinates, both as to their number, their duties and their rate of pay, and from thence to Wellington another district similarly managed, another district in Christchurch for all lines north of Christchurch and south to Tiniaru, another having its head quarters in Dunedin, and having charge of all lines south of Timaru and north of Clinton :—and another at Invercargill, having charge of all lines south of Clinton all these managers and engineers being responsible to a board of directors sitting, say in Wellington, who should have full power to dismiss any of them and appoint others in their place if they are dissatisfied with their management.

We should then have these five managers and five engineers, striving one against the other to see which of them could give the greatest facility to the public at the least possible expense, and by comparing the results in each district, the board (of say three or five directors) could then see who were the best managers and who were the worst, and treat them accordingly; bat I consider it absolutely essential that full confidence should be placed in their managers and engineers until they are. found to be in* competent, and then they shonld be instantly dismissed by the board. By this means a spirit of emulation would be raised, and a saving of from 40 to JO per cent, coaid be retrenched, and the service wonld be better performed. I may return to this subject at a fntnre time, as I have only touched the outside edges of this very large question, bnt I feel that I have already encroached sufficiently on your space ; and I think if others were to give their views on some of the other departments with which they are acquainted some useful information may be given to our new members, on which to found some practical means of retrenchment, without injury to the public service, but rather with advantage to it.—Vonrs respectfully, John Gwtsseih, C.E.