'STUFFING' THE PUBLIC SERVICE. CHRISTCHURCH.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 15, 10 April 1902, Page 3

' STUFFING' THE PUBLIC SERVICE. CHRISTCHURCH.

Railway Department (Lyttelton station, including yard, shedp, and wharf).— The following is a list of the employes of the Railway Department at Lyttelton, with particulars of salaries and wages, and religious beliefs :—: — Grade. Salary or Wages. Religion. Stationmaster £300 per annum non-Catholic Chief clerk £270 „ „ Clerk £190 „ „ 4 clerks £180 „ each „ I clerk £160 „ Catholic 1 „ £150 6 clerks £150 „ „ non-Catholic 2 cadets £90 „ „ „ 1 cadet £50 „ „ 1 „ £50 „ Catholic 3 cadets £40 „ „ non-Catholic Foreman £180 „ „ £160 10 storemen 8s per day „ „ Horse driver 8s 6d „ Catholic Laborer 7s „ non-Catholic 2 shunters 89 6d „ „ „ 1 shunter 8s „ Catholic 1 !> 8s „ non-Catholic 4 » 7s 6d Cranedriver 9s „ Catholic 7s 6d 13 porters 7s 6d „ „ non-Catholic 1 porter 7s 6d „ Catholic 1 .. 7s 8 porters 7s „ „ non-Catholic 1 porter 5s „ (j 2 porters 4a „ )f )? 2 „ 4a „ v Catholic 1 porter 3s 6d „ non-Catholic Signalman 9s 6d „ „ 8s 6d 3 nightwatchmen £2 2s per week „ „ In addition to the above there are four engine drivers — two at 12s per day, and two at 11s. Two of these are Catholics, one of whom has been in the service for 33, and the other for 25 years. There are altogether 28 salaried employes of whom three are Catholics, or about lin 9. For every £11 2s paid in salaries the Catholics draw £1. Of the balance of the employes, consisting of 56 wages men, 8 are Catholics, whose rate of pay ranges from 4s to 8s 6d per day. It will be Been from the foregoing figures that among the salaried officers Catholics are not in proportion to their numbers in the population, and that it is only in the poorly paid grades our co-religionists have anything like justice done to them. Another important matter in connection with the list of wages men is this, that out of the 41 having 12 years of service and under to their credit there are only four Catholics. In other words for every 10 non-Catholics appointed within the past 12 years 1 Catholic has been taken on. And yet there are people so reckless as to assert that the Railway service has been ' stuffed ' of recent years with Catholics.