"CUTTING IT FINE"

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 33, 7 August 1918, Page 8

"CUTTING IT FINE"

RAILWAY STAFF DEPLETION.

This month's issue of the Railway Officers' Advocate gives another warning of the danger threatened to the public by the depletion of railway staffs. "Last month," the paper states, " we referred to the serious position on the Auckland section caused by reduced staff and the consequent heavy responsibilities shouldered by our members in carrying on the work of the Department. Officers have realised their responsibilities and have " done their bit" loyally, but there 13 a point beyond which it is extremely unwise to go, and members of long service and undoubted experience 'are becoming uneasy at the prospect of further thinning out of capable men. At the present time a further number of our permanent men are drawn for military service, and if they are allowed to go, and the staff be still further depleted of trained men, the institute will be compelled in the interests of its members to lay the position before the public. Men cannot be trained for efficient railway working in a day, and already several capable officers have been placed in such a position that their future prospects in the Service are jeopardised because of the strain placed upon them of having to carry on with inadequate assistance. For the present we leave it at that."