RIGHT IT-BUT HOW?

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1122, 9 May 1911, Page 2

RIGHT IT-BUT HOW?

9 . RAILWAY TROUBLE. SOME SPEECHES AT A SOCIAL. (By T(fiecra'Db.-SDecial Correspondent.! Wanganui, May S. Some extremely candid speaking was heard at tho railwaymen's valedictory, "social" to Mr. Wm, Popper on Satur- [ day night, lu proposing the toast of , "Parliament," Jlr. W. A. Veitch, president of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, said that, in view of . what had been done for railwaymcn by the Government in 1007, the dissatisfaction which was now so. open and general might lead people to think that [ the service was ungrateful and hard to 1 satisfy, but he thought that the causes which had led to this dissatisfaction should bo explained.. Whatever-dissatis-faction might exist,-there could' bs no question about the-railwaymen's lovaltv to the general public. They realised that their grievances- were not with the public, and that' any rash or unreasonable act on their part (even under the present exasperating circumstances) would be very wrong indeed. The idea of anything in tho nature of a strike on the New Zealand Railways was out of the question. Railwaymen knew that they only need to 'let the public under-' stand the cause of tho trouble in order to bring about its removal. The present trouble was very different to "that which had existed prior to 1007 and the reason was that, though Parliament had granted reforms, it had failed to secure the carrying out.of those reforms. Over and over again Parliament . had . put things right for them, but in spite of that, tho same old trouble exists.. Their position was not sufficiently secure—they wanted some binding- agreement whereby they could compel the carrying, out. of the privileges which were theirs, but hedid not think that tho Arbitration Court would bo of any use to them. There should bo some independent body standing between them and Parliament to see that the regulations were carried out as ordered by Parliament. What was going on now was the same as in the days of the Railway Commissioners. "Strict economy" was the order then, and it was the same to-day. They found competition going on among a largo number of officers (ho said "largo number" because they had many friends among their officers) who, in their anxiety to show tho Minister for Railways that they are carrying out his orders to the fullest extent, did not care how- they dealt with the privileges of.-their staff. Replying to tho toast, Mr. .7. T.- Hogan, jr.P., said that Jlr. Veitch had stated tho position correctly. Ono obstacle to redress was tho lack of. interest displayed by many members of Parliament in railway matters and, when matters affecting the service came before the House, manymembers know nothing about them. He did not approve of putting the railways under commissioners again, but the Minister ought to have sufficient grip of matters under his control to know whether tho men were being fairly dealt with. Tho railway promotion system Mr. Tloiran described as "ono of the most rotten" on the face of the earth," To provide a remedy might be a difficult matter, but ho thought that some kind of elective . board to select those who were entitled to promotion, transfers, and nnpointmorts. would be a good idea. He admitted that it was a knotty problem, but a remedy must be found for most of the grievances now existing. Mr. D. M'Laren, M.P., who also spoke to the toast, said that ono of the remedies for the pve=ent Grievances lav in the direction qf the Government giving to its servants -civil rights which, hitherto, it had denied them. -When a man became tho servant of the State he did lint cense to be a citizen of his country, and should not be denrived of the rights' possessed by other citizens.