LOCOMOTIVE MANUFACTURE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 87, 11 April 1906, Page 8

LOCOMOTIVE MANUFACTURE.

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —In your issue of Wednesday, April •4. I noticed in the Trade and Labour Notes a paragraph that the following motion was agreed to at a meeting of the Canterbury Trades and Labour Council, and ordered to be forwarded to .the Minister for Railways:—"That this Council hails with satisfaction the announcement of the Government's decision to have in future all locomotive engines manufactured in the colony." '. So say I; but they are not satisfied to stop here, hut desire to emphatically express the opinion that it is not in the best interest of the colony, and also opposed to the interest of the men employed in the industry, that they should be manufactured by private employers. Great Scot! What are we coming to when one part of a small section of the community begins to dictate to the Government what they shall or shall not do? Are they really in earnest, for I doubt whether they can be? ■While I hold very strongly that it is the Government's duty to have all work done in the colony, I think that the private employer and employees have a perfect right to participate in the money that is spent by the Government; and I further think, no! am sure that it would be to the best interests of the Government to have more of their work done by private firms. Let mc illustrate this. About eighteen months ago the Government called tenders for ten locomotives of "a certain class, and the tender of Messrs A. and G. Price was accepted. How did they turn out the work? Why, sir, it is a well-known fact that there has never been such a job turned out by any Government shop in tho colonies. The workmanship is far superior to the imported article. Yet, sir, we. find this Council arrogating to themselves the right to decide that these locomotives must be built in Government Workshops on the ground that past experience has proved the superiority of cur workshops over the pri-vately-owned shops, both as to the quantity of the work and the manner it has been performed. That the Government are calling tenders for twenty more locomotives proves conclusively that the work of the private firm, both in quality and durability and finish, bears very favourable comparison with the railway workshops, and also prove.-, that the Government are in earnest in that'private firms throughout the colony should have a chance of; competing for this class of work. I should like the Canterbury Trades' Council members to digest this motto, "Live and let I am, etc., W* CLIFFE.