ENGINE DRIVERS' CLAIMS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 273, 11 August 1908, Page 7

ENGINE DRIVERS' CLAIMS.

SOME COMPARISONS. (by TBLEGBArir.—SPECIAL COREESrONDENT.) Christchurch, August 10. With regard to the statements made in tho Houso during tho discussion on the Railway Estimates as to drivers being limited to 12s. 6d. a day, a "Times" reporter, in conversation with, some of tile men, lias ascertained that thero is somo feeling among them on tho' point. It was asserted by one that drivers were the only employees on the railway who had to pass technical examinations to enable them to pass from one grado to another, for which thoy had to provido themselves with books, charts, and papers. They wero also required to pass examinations in rules and regulations overy twelve months, which meant that a great deal of their tirao off duty was occupied, and their vision was put to a scvero test. Thoy were subject to a heavier scale of fines and punishments than any other branch of tho service, and wero among tho last to rcceivo a forty-eight hour week. Since the general Government took over the railways tho wages of tho drivers had beeu allowed to drop from. 13s. per day to 125., yet tho revenue from the railways was said to bo_ always on tho increase. Another pointed out that to-day clerks of tho tenth grade received £5 a year more than first grade onginemen. Another driver said that in tho Australian States, wliero the cost of living was 20 per cent, lower than it was hero, drivers were better paid, had less arduous work, and received more holidays. There was a shortage of rolling stockin tho Dominion, and the engines had to bo worked up to their- full capacity, while in Australia such conditions did not'prevail. In New South Wales the men had a fortyeight hour week, and received up to 15s. a day; and in Victoria tho day was an eight and a half hour one, and tho men's wages went up to 14s. a day. Tho Now Zealand men had hot had an increaso of wages since the days of the provincial Government, and all that time the cost of living had steadily been increasing. The men, lie added, were agitating for an inorease in their wages.