ADDINGTON WORKSHOPS.

Evening Star, Issue 13162, 19 January 1909, Page 6

ADDINGTON WORKSHOPS.

THE GOVERNMENT STROKE. A SERIOUS IMPEACHMENT. [Special to the Stae.] CHRISTCHURCH, January 19. The General Manager of the New Zealand Railways recently forwarded the following memorandum to the chief mechanical engineer at Addington Workshops ’ I have had a long interview with an expert engineer, who paid several visits to the Addington shops. He was astounded at the slow methods and leisurely work of the men generally, more especially those in the boiler shop. Five minutes per rivet for new rivets is a case in point. The men in the smith shop are also doing the “Government stroke.’’ There appeared to be an utter disregard of the foreman’s presence in any of the shops, the men being allowed to talk, loaf, and do a verv indifferent day's work. It is absolutely necessary that this state of indifference should be brought to a close, and a fair day’s work must be insisted upon. It will be futile for the locomotive engineer and his staff to lay charges that may lie groundless, but the fact remains that work at Addington costs more to produce than it does at Pelone or Hillside. Of the “A” compound built at Addington, as compared with those built by Price Bros., the latter can build cheaper, yet their shops arc not nearly so well equipped (is the Addington shops. You will please take such action as will jtijng this discreditable state of affairs to an end.—l am, etc., T. Rokavkr. A day or two after the despatch of this memo, it was replaced by another identical in language, except that the paragraph “It will he futile." etc., was omitted. The chief mechanical engineer referred to communicated with the general manager at Addington, and that official has, it is understood, sent conics of the document to the heads of all Ihc departments, with instructions to supply him with a full report upon all the charges made.