N.Z. Railwaymen Go Back To School To Learn English

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 84, 11 January 1950, Page 5

N.Z. Railwaymen Go Back To School To Learn English

Civil servants in some of the bigger Government departments have been at school in their spare time learning how to simplify the language of official forms and correspondence. Latest group to be interested in this method of saving time and tempers (and perhaps some red tape) are the railwaymen. Since September, 1948, the Railways Department, through its training school in Wellington, has been running a course in English up to university stage I standard. Some of the 220 men who enrolled found the work hard, but about 60 have passed. Most of them were clerical workers, but a lot were guards and porters. They are being encouraged to write official. reports that explain clearly and briefly mysteries like the late arrival of the 5.20; or just how some passenger’s luggage was sent to the wrong station. The useful arts of precis writing and correct punctuation are other typical parts of the course.

For most of the men the work is a hobby. It is all done by correspondence.