CONGESTION AT RAILWAY GOODS SHED.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 9813, 24 August 1897, Page 3

CONGESTION AT RAILWAY GOODS SHED.

TO THE EDITOR OP THK PRKSS.

Sir, —I read with much interest a letter iv your issue of Friday upon the congestion of goods at the Christchurch station, and only wonder that the merchants as a body have not protested"before ; the fact is, we are so used to be trodden on by the railway authorities that we actually get to like it and all the go has been knocked out of us. I will tell you in a few words the real cause of the^.trouble, and that is—Shortness of enable the Department to get empties to carry on their work the trucks are discharged at night, with the result that when morning comes the whole goods shed is blocked. We want more trucks, more shed room, and no discharging at night to block up what has been done in the day. By the way, would you believe it. Sir, that our Great Liberal Government, the defender of Unions and Union wages, actually insists upon the railway hands working night after night to all hours, at less than ordinary rates of pay, viz., Is per hour, while private employers in Lyttelton pay their hands 2s per hour for similar work. Surely comment is needless.—Yours, &c, Tradesman. to the editor of thk press. Sir,—l noticed a letter in your issue of Saturday on the above subject, and I can thoroughly endorse all that " Importer" says, and, in addition, can state that the shed is more badly managed than he says, and can quote an instance in evidence oi this. A firm of drapers required a certain case, ex Gothic, urgently by the end of the week following the arrival of that boat iv Lyttelton, and instructed their clerk to make a special point of getting that case delivered without fail, and, in consequence, he hunted about for a portion of three consecutive days after that time, and finally found it in the middle ot a large stack of cases and bales compiling the merchandise of three or four diflfei-ent firms.

The fact is the authorities are trying to do an impossible thing, i.e., to work the shed too cheaply. If instead of cutting expenses they were to have two or three men on the floor to stack the goods and see that the different marks were kept together it would save a large amount of trouble. I might also state that I believe the authorities have been talking of giving extra accommodation for the last twelve months, but, as is usual with our present Government's proposed improvements, it has not got any further than the talking. Trusting that I have not intruded on your valuable space too much, —Yours, fee, Importer's Clerk.