RAILWAY STAFF

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 28 June 1926, Page 7

RAILWAY STAFF

REGRADING PROPOSALS. COMMENT BY MINISTER YOUNGER OFFICERS TO BE SENT ABROAD. (BY TELEGRAPH PRESS ASSOCIATION.) WELLINGTON, June 28. Speaking at a smoke concert to delegates of the Railway Officers’ Institute, the Prime Minister referred to the delay in the. publication of D 3 (the classification list of officers of the department). Its detention was not in any way the. fault of the Railway Board, for it had been a week or ten days in his hands as Minister of Railways and, while he had every confidence in Mr Jones and hisi board, he click want thoroughly to understand) the reclassification before he O.K’d- it. Therefore he hoped they would overlook the slight delay in its production. Next time he hoped to have it out early in the year, so that they could •look forward 'to a welcome change in regard l to the regrading, authorised by legislation last year. That would not be found in D 3, but in next year’s edition, whatever its merits or demerits were—for the matter was being considered not only, by the board but also by other officers, and would be the nearest to a merit system that oould be adopted. He could not lay to much stress on the necessity for training young officers, and at least four young men should be sent abroad annually to train, by exchange or on other railway systems, so they could serve the Dominion. more* efficiently when they returned. Senior men would leave the service whfen their turn came, so that everything should be clone to educate officers to fill their places efficiently. His desire was not only to prevent the service becoming insular or circumscribed in its outlook, but to procure r> better railway system. He also urged the board to fix a regular time to meet and discus problems with the members of different departments.