RAILWAYS AD WAR

Evening Post, Volume XCIV, Issue 60, 8 September 1917, Page 4

RAILWAYS AD WAR

ADVERSE CRITICISM

WORK OF GENERAL

MANAGER

CURTAILED SUBURBAN SERVICES

NO HOPE OF RESTORATION.

When the Railways vote was reached in ■ the House of Representatives last night, Mr. Veitch urged that the Minister should arrange., that," the 'General Manager should be relieved of his military duties, and allowed to give his undiyided attention to tho control of the I'ailways.t. There was, he added, a great deal of concern in the service on the subject, and he wanted to point out the seriousness of the position. Many men were being lost from recruiting, but it appeared that the Minister did not fully appreciate the. problem. , When the war •was over there would be a heavy increase of traffic and a shortage of experienced men to .' handle things which could ordy be safely handled by , experienced men. The safety of. the Department had in, the past been assured by the fact that promotion was slow, and no one was promoted- until he had full experience. The problem was so great that it should nqt be left to a General Manager, who 'spent a great deal oE his time in camp. He did. not say that .the General Manager should not go into camp, but he contended that his proper place was in the head office. - - . ±'ISE BIGGEST SCANDAL.' . •-" :-

•Dr. Th'aclief'conto'nde'd that-ttie"im-portation of a General Manager from England was one of. the biggest scandals that"hail "ever*"Tj'eeir'perpetrated "in"tlie" history of. the. Dominion.. . Later, in his speech, he remarked that the Minister of Railways was suffering from one of his paroxysms of sickly, grin. The Chairman of Committees-(Mr. A.-. S. Malcolm) ordered Dr. (Thacker to withdraw that remark.

Dr. Thacker: I withdraw it, but it could, be expected —— The Chairman: You must apologise Dr. Thacker: I withdraw it, but we can't get .away from the facts. Dr. Thacker went on to complain that a-large number of' men had been exempted from service in the Railway Department, and no arrangements had been made for training men for the services rendered vacant. . PERSONAL ATTACK DEPBE- . GA"TED. Mr. E. A. Wright expressed deep regret;,at'-the. personal attack that had been made on the General Manager; of. Eailways, and the Railway Department generally. The Government of New Zealand had applied in Great Britain for a railway expert, who came out here under contract. That contract should be carried out. It was not a brave thing to attack an officer of the Government when he could not hit back He. thought members of the House were honourable gentlemen, but if they went in for this practice of attacking heads of Departments, 'they would run the risk of bringing. themselves into . disrepute. If. the General Manager's time was taken up with the Rolling Stock Commission, it must be: remembered that the Commission was set up as the result of charges made by Mr.-/Wilford. .. -„ Mr. Wilford : I'll •-. answer, youS pre-i gently. V■■ -.' .." ".';' X" ': *:: ■ DISGRUNTLED SERVICE. Mr. Hornsby expressed the belief that had the General. Manager been enabled to carry out his wishes the railway service would have been on a very muoh better 'footing'than it; was at present. Good work had been done in connection.^.with; .the: .men at .the. camps!' On the"other"hand, there" was' no' ■ getting away from the fact that ■fie service was disgruntled,, and many Store would'get out "of it unless a different state of . things was brought about. He had heard some of their complaints, and considered that they had reason, right, _.and, justice, on their side. That state- o'f.'ithings : -coukl- only, be brought about by a cessation of the many disabilities to which'they were subjected by some of the departmental officers. The men had always, even in times of strife, stood loyally by the country. .

GENERAL MANAGER'S. TIME.

.Mr. M'Callum considered that the railways were well managed,, as shown by the small number ,(5f accid.ents,_lbut" he objected to a suggestion that had been made,..that, any shortage■■ on the railways' would'be made good' by"the Minister of Finance. The Minister of Finance knew how strongly the Liberal Party fought'"against' importing a : General Manager, and he contended that ii was riot fair that the services of that official should be largely taken up by another Department., The House had a right. to know how-.much of Mr. Hiley's time "was taken" up by, another.Department. Surely he was not the only person in New who-could do that work! Again) if Mr. "Hiley wore himself out in the service of the Defence Department, ;he could not give, the full value of his services and energies to the Railway Department. '

PROUD OF RAILWAY RECORD.

The Minister of Railways (Hon. W. H. Herries) said ...that the General Manager's time belonged to the Railway /Department, and it was only occasionally that he attended to the Defence Department. Members should be'proud of. the fact that there had been a, record as far as the railways were concerned. It must be recognised that these were great figures for war time. . Members should be proud of the manner in which the railways'.of this country had been managed. He agreed that New Zealand had the finest bpdy.. of men,that ever .assisted any railway in the world, and he "would be very sorry to see it broken up. But* It'was largely "a matter "of £."s'.'.d. A man on, the, railway, received, with the bonus, a wage of 403 a day, and it was a question ..whether .the.. House should differentiate between railway'and other public servants.

EAILWAYMEN AND MILITARY

SERVICE.

He wanted to put the'whole position;! before members. Our duty was to win' the war. If the Defence Department said' they wanted more men from the Railway Department more men' would be allowed, to g0..; More men. had already gone than lie had felt justified in allowing to go. If men were released the result must be the curtailment of services, which were not absolutely required. • •■■-'■■'• •-■■• ' ■■■ A member': How many have gone? The Minister : About 6000. Another member : A fine record. The Minister: It is- a fine record. He went on to emphasise the necessity. of keeping up the goods and maintenance branches of the service. As \a the suburbanites, ■. they- were, he said, endeavouring .to.do'"away" with night services imd Sunday services throughout the Dominion. He regretted the cutting down of the suburban trains, but the whole idea was to release men to go to the front. That necessarily occasioned some delay, but men could not be sent to the front without some delay. At Home, he added, they were running on a time-table that was. 20 years, old, and he wanted to know what would happen if that was done here. He could not hold out any hope of the

suburban traffic being restored. People would have to alter their mode of living. The policy had been adopted solely for the purpose of being able to send men to the front. They also had to consider the. question of the reduction of coal supply, which necessitated a reduced service. For a month, they .had not had I a ton of coal from Newcastle, and it was not suggested that they could get all' they, wanted .from tlie West .Coast. ■ EXCELLENT WORK.. Dr. Newman maintained that Mr. Hiley had done excellent work in connection with the camps. He also urged that instead of building branch railways the Department should run motor lorries and motor 'buses, which would do a great deal towards developing the country. ; " ■ Mr. . Poole contended ■ that some in"ducemeht should'be held out to young men of the Railway Service to reach tho • highest point,. even to tho extent of sending them abroad for the purpose of enlarging their experience, and thus becoming of more value to the Dominion. ■' RESIGNATIONS DUE TO DISCONTENT. Mi 1. Veitch contended that the main' reason why the train service had had to be reduced was because of; the number of resignations on account of discontent with the conditions of the service. The position might develop into-a- great pub-' lie danger: The 1 curtailment of- the suburban train services had' done a. great deal, to increase the financial difficulties of the people., Those who lived, in the suburbs, could not come into the cities' at night arid Work overtime and make themselves efficient. As to the railway men, he contended that if they had been, more militant and less reasonable a much better condition of things would have been brought about.

Dr. Thacker. complained of the acoommodntiori' on ; the, sleeping cars-on the Wellington-Auckland line. Surely, he said, a man with Mr. Hiley's ability must think, what simpls people New Zealanders were to put lip with such ..contraptions.....lt. was not fair to. subject travellers to such wretched'conditions. There was no system, and it was not a.fair deal Dr. Thacker also referred to the discomfort caused to travellers in going through the Lyttelton tunnel. If the Government would not do what ought to be done 't should give way to a Government that would, after a General Election had taken place.

A VALUABLE REPORT.

The Hon. Arthur M. Myers said he had travelled frequently on, the North Island Main Trunk train, and also in Europe and the United .States, "and he characterised the Main Trunk accommodation as "highly creditable." He thought New Zealand was to be congratulated on the fact that -it had secured the services of>Mr. Hiley. „.. . ■ .'...■' Mr. Wilford: What has he done?

The Minister said that after he had made:, iriiriselC.ac'quaihtcd ' Twith'" the circumstances of the Dominion Mr. Hiley brought down a report which, if it had been adopted, would have made,the New Zealand railways second to none. The rqason the report was not adopted and carried out was one of finance.

Mr. Wilford protested, at this stage against the ruling's of the Chairman, which, he asserted, prevented members freely debating the Railways Statement. He contended .that, it had. been,agreed that if the Railways Statement was not debated on.its introduction every opportunity would be given for debating railway matters when the Estimates were in Committee.

Making reference;, to.. the ■"criticisms against the Railway Department,, the Hon. Mr. JEenries (Mifiister~oi- v Raihvays) sa.ld; that: there was not,;the'-slightest pique between the Railway amhthe Defence Departments. , - '■'.' ■ Mr. L. M. Isitt said that he had had vast, experience of railway travelling in England and America, and was_ quite satisfied that the railways in this Dominionr would compare favourably with any in any part of the- world. Mr. A. Walker said. that, the had 'not-provided for the return'of workers to their homes on late working nights. BRAINS OP THE WHOLE CONCERN.

Mr: Forbes wanted to know what would be the cost of the Rolling-Stock Commission? He expressed the opinion that in running motor services the Railway Depai"tment could, not compete with private enterprise'!' ' " ■ " Mr. V. H. Reed contended; that they ought riot to condemn the management unless particular instances' were given. Everyone could see that the rolling stock had improved. Of "course there were complaints, but they were matters of detail and not matters which could be laid at the charge of the General Manager. ... Mr. L. M. .Isitt urged that the only ■justification for ;the appointment of the General Manager" at £3000 a year was some great change or improvement in the policy of the'-Department: I.' He believed that Mr. M'Villy, the Assistant General Manager, was. still , the brains of the' w'hble'concernr"""" " ■' ■•-'■■•

AMENDMENT MOVED AND LOST.

Mr. Wilford moved to' reduce' the vote by £1 as an indication that the time has come when the-facilities formerly enjoyed ;by suburban presidents,should be-restored oh Friday nighte: '-" '■ ■■ * ' '' ■ -The Hon.-W Eraser, said: the question was this': 'Whether the men on the railways stiould'go to the front or whether they should stay behind. The,;motion to reduce-the vote was lost by 24 votes to 12.-''".''■ '. Mr. Wilford moved to report progress, so as to allow of a larger number of members being given the opportunity to express their opinion on a later occasion, early; next week, instead of nearly midnight at the end of the week. The motion to report progress ttm lost on the voices.

A minute, after midnight, however, progress was reported on the voices. . Mr. Wilford asked the: Minister of Railways directly whether he had riot stated 'that 'the" fullest" opportunity' would bo given for discussing the Railways Statement in Committee on the Estimates. Tima after time the Chairman of Committees had ruled out of order when they were discussing matters which wore' in.' the „; Railways,!', Statement', and with a wave of his hand had ordered them to sit-down —in a manner that he had never previously witnessed.

The "Ministeroopf p Railways said he understood that full opportunity to discuss the Railway Statement wouid be provided, as it had been, on the Estimates. The House-rose at 0.-10 a.m.