WELLINGTON STATION DINING ROOM

Press, Volume LXXXIIi, Issue 25214, 19 June 1947, Page 3

WELLINGTON STATION DINING ROOM

DEPARTMENT CONSIDERING TWO ALTERNATIVES (P.A.) WELLINGTON, June 18. A decision on the future of the dining room at the Wellington railway station, which has been closed for several months through staff shortage, will be made within the next few weeks. This was stated to-day by an officer of the railways refreshment branch. Any suggestion, he said, that the closed dining room had become a white elephant should be discarded. The department had not pigeonholed the matter, but was considering the best means of meeting the refreshment needs of the travelling public. Quite apart from the difficulty of obtaining staff to maintain it, the old dining room had in the main provided a convenient restaurant for the public of Wellington. Two alternatives faced the department, either to reopen the dining room in its former capacity, or to employ it as a giant cafeteria. The latter course would preclude staffing difficulty, and mean the conversion of the present cafeteria into office premises and a bakery. In spite of unprecedented wages, there was still a great shortage of staff in the refreshment branch of the service. Waitresses at Paekakariki, for example, were earning a net average weekly wage of more than £5. During holiday or rush periods their earnings in some reached £l3 a fortnight. In addition, they were provided with free accommodation at a nearby hostel. It was thought that British immigrants would greatly relieve the shortage of female labour throughout the service.