RAILWAY SERVANTS' TROUBLES.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 210, 29 May 1908, Page 6

RAILWAY SERVANTS' TROUBLES.

According to the official organ of the Tew Zealand Amalgamated Socicty of iaihvay Servants a serious crisis has risen in the affairs of the Society. It ppears that at the Conference of. the Society's delegates held here earlier in he month various grievances which had iltercd through from the different ranches were under review. These ;rievances had been placed before the ilinister earlier in the year, and much o' the'surprise and disappointment of he members of the Society/nearly every cqucst was refused. "Never in the hisory of the Society," according to the iailway Review, " had so unsatisfactory , series of Ministerial answers been given 0 Conference resolutions. They were ead to the Executive amid exclamations if mingled amazement, indignation, and imusemcnt, for so extraordinary a batch if. ill-considered, unconvincing statements they had never heard before." ■lot only is the Executive dissatisfied vith the replies of the Minister, but it s dissatisfied with his method of treatng the request of the delegates for- an ntervicw. The representatives of the Society desired a personal interview vith Mr. Hall-Jones, believing this to >e the most satisfactory method of placing ,heir views before him, but the Minister leelined this mode of procedure, and insisted that the representations of. the Conference sholild be put into writing, tfo doiilit the Minister was well within lis rights ifi asking that the views of the Doiiferfeiice sho'illd be forwarded in such :orm as to leave no room for subsequent lisputation as to the actual requests nade, but surely it would have been a small thing also to grant the delegates 1 personal interview. Ministers who can and time to rush' about thti country ori ill sorts of trifling business can hardly plead that they have not tiiriti to meet ihe representatives of so important an irganisatioii as the Amalgamated Socicty )f Railway SeP/itflts, find on matters of such moment to the Whole railway service xs were involved in iiiii. requests submitted. It is not Surprising that the Minister's'attitude has aroused a strong feeling of resentment throughout the service. The Railway Review sums up the position in the following terms:— "As we have said before of the detailed mswers, they are unconvincing, and the general" attitude of the administration towards necessary reforms is equally so. The public mind is agitated over the condition' of the personnel of our railways, and are wo in a position to say fchrft the best men are encouraged to join the .Service 1. Is the Department able to say, in face of its treatment of the) Society's well-reasoned claims for reform, that it encourages the best men who arc in the Service to stay there J We are not inclined to be alarmist in our attitude, but we say the Government is unable, under the circumstances detailed above, to reassure the public on these vital points!" The Minister ccrtainly seems to have been lacking in his usual tact in dealing with the situation. There is quite enough of labour trouble in the air without finding it in the Government service.