ON PUBLIC WORKS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 269, 12 November 1937, Page 6

ON PUBLIC WORKS.

THE LORRY DRIVER'S JOB.

(To the Editor.)

If "Tourist" would like to supply the cigars to some of us Public Works Department lorry drivers we would look like American millionaires, although we would certainly not feel like them. The Hon. R. Seinple said one man one job. Lorry drivers on P.W.D. jobs are not supposed to load; their job is to trim the load and drive. If we drivers were to load we would be doing a man out of a job, doing two men's jobs and drawing one man's pay—reckon up the number of lorries there are on the road jobs and leave out one man in place of the iorrv driver, and how many men would there be without jobs? It is not the fact that, as "Tourist" puts it, we are too tired to load; it is because on some jobs if we were to help to load we would be called names not fit to mention. As far as I can see, the weaker men and those who are not fit for heavy work on Public Works johs. are well cared for, and I have not heard any of them complaining about the work being strenuous. Driving lorries on the P.W.D. jobs to the eyes of "Tourist" seems to be all milk and honey, but we have our work to do a long time after the men knock off work, (greasing and filling up and practically giving our trucks a general overhaul for work next day. We are often called out in the middle of the night in cold weather to help motorists out of a hole. TRUCKER.