RAILWAY APPEAL BOARD

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXX, Issue 14982, 30 April 1909, Page 11

RAILWAY APPEAL BOARD

. [Pi* Press Association.] • ' WANGANUI, April 29. The North Island Railway Appeal Board concluded the hearing of cases this morning, when the appeal of Driver M’Gurk, who was dismissed from the service. as the result of a collision 'between a mail train and a shunting engine and van, was concluded, Decision was reserved..;^" . The appeal of |H. J. Donovan, leading boilermaker, Eastown Workshops, JJand first on the D 3 list, which is the highest grade, was upheld. Donovan was hot given a rise in wages when the. general increase waG made on April 1, under the Act of, 1908, on the ground that he wag ,alleged to be inefficient as compared with one other of three on -‘the 6ame grade. The Board held that ? Inefficiency and misconduct were the only grounds for withholding an in'crease, and this the Department did not allege. The Department admitted ■Donovan did the work given to him . efficiently", but alleged that he was incapable of doing the highest work in the trade, which the Board held was a matter for gtadiag by the Department, and Donovan, being classified on the highest grade, 1 was entitled to the general rice. , • ' 1 1 '• -’'Mr Kenny, who has been chairman Of the Board for twelve years, and who retires On superannuation, was fafe.welled by the inembere of the Board ’'and the representatives of the appellants this morning, this being his last v sitting on the Board. Mr Veitch, president of the Amalgamated Society of •Railway Servants, eulogised the work of Mr Kenny, and spoke in terms of general satisfaction of. the Board’s decisions under Mr Kenny.