MANAGER WANTED FOR RAILWAY ECONOMY

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIV, Issue LXXXIV, 23 September 1912, Page 3

MANAGER WANTED FOR RAILWAY ECONOMY

VVILL LOCAL TALENT BE OVERLOOKED? (By "Check Waste.") No one who has studied the railways can over-stress the fact that the principal function — practically the sole functioh^of a competent general manager for the New Zealand railways is the cutting down of expenditure, while maintaining reasonable service, by improved organisation and improved technical administration. This fact has been emphasised in a previous article; it is the basis of all true understanding of the needs 'Of the present situation, and cannot be stated too often. A GLANCE AT EXPENDITURE. ' The Railways Statement for 1912 shows that the working expenditure is divided between the three technical departments* in the following manner: Mechanical Engineer's Division, £952,000 (or 40 per cent, of the total expenditure) ; Maintenance Engineer's Division, £736,000 (30 per cent.); Traffic Manager's Division, £671,000 (27 per cent.). These figures plainly demonstrate the basic fact that a competent man (or men) is the crying need of the railway system. This fact ig fully recognised- on the Continent of Europe, where competition has not reached the same basis as in Great Britain and where the administrative heads of the railways are composed almost universally of engineering graduates. In America the head of the system is nearly always a civil engineer versed in tho construction of new lines and the maintenance of existing lines. Doubtless the huge expansion of track in recent years is the reason why preference is nearly always given to the civil as opposed to the mechanical engineer. PECULIAR DUAL POLICY, In New Zealand, by tome queer ec« centricity, the construction of railway lines is carried out entirely by the Public Works Department without reference to 'the Railway Department in any way, but this will be changed as soon as any competent technical man assumes control of the R-ailway Department. The grotesque policy of the railway lines being' steadily built by an outside department with grades of 1 in 40, when the Minister of Railways h^s officially pointed out that economy of running demands grades of not more than 1 in 80, and when large sums are proposed to bd spent In reducing grades to that figure, has its comic side, but the people of New Zealand pay too much for the joke. LOOK AT QUEENSLAND. Queensland, as The Post showed in a series' of articles several years ago,' is the State where the railway system offers the closest comparison with New Zealand's. The only divergent factors ate in the scattered nature of the Queensland system, which should raise its working expenses as compared with New Zealand, and the higher wages paid in New Zealand, which average probably about 6 per certf. higher than those in Queensland. It would be logical to expect that the cost of working for each unit of Work done (the train mile) would be. roughly, the same in the two systems, and with equally .efficient management there is reason to believe they would be. Instead, the following discrepancies present themselves. The cost (in pence) per train mile is:— loco- Mainmotive, tenance. Traffic. New Zealand ... 27.3 " 21.1 19.3 Queensland ... 15.5 12.8 11 These figures are given for another purpose^than to complete the indictment tabled against the management in the first article of this series. The purport of. them is td 'show the relative savings that may be expected from the services' of a competent ( manager by improved technical administration. In order to place the reasoning beyond cavil' of any kind it may be assumed that conditions as to wages and other factors in New Zealand are such that the working expenses per train mile should be 30 per cent, higher than ,in Queensland. If a general manager was obtained, a' man capable of bringing 1 down the "working expenses oven to that figure, the saving over the present, regime would be :-— Division. Mechanical Engineer's .., . ...£248,000 Maintenance Engineer's ... 156.000 Traffic Manager's 175,000 Total saving ...'£579,000 This enormous saving is no > visionary" matter, but a coldblooded estimate of ' the advantages that. can be fairly ex-" pected from reasonably efficient management. THE CRUX OF IT. In addition to having necessary techni< cal knowledge the general manager" should have had experience on similar systems to that in New Zealand— that is, a system of comparatively light lines running through sparsely populated country and beyond, without competition. Obviously it would be a great advantage if such a man could be found in the Dominion itself, and preferably in the Government service, for many reasons. In the first place, such a course would commend itself to the employees, with whom he would have to work amicably, and knowlecfge of local factor's and conditions would ba a great help in this respect. The employees themselves are the persons most closely concerned with the efficiency of the management, and it is clearly to their benefit to be servants of a well-regulated and paying concern rather than to belong to a business where they yearly see a* waste, by ignorance and incompetence, of money that could be ifsed in raising their wages and bettering their conditions.