THE RAILWAY SERVICE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13708, 26 March 1908, Page 6

THE RAILWAY SERVICE.

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYEES.

FACILITIES FOR PROMOTION

RAGGING STILL PREVALENT.

[ltr TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.]

Wellington. Wednesday. With regard to the Press Association telegram published to-day, stating that resignations from the railway service at Westport are frequent, and that half a dozen young men have their notices in at present, the general manager of railways (Mr. Ronayne) states that the circumstance has no special significance. Men are always entering and leaving the railway service, and there is an unusual demand for labour in Westport at the present time, especially at the mines. A good many young men leave the railway service, added the general manager, the cause being they do not look far enough ahead. An immediate shilling a, week more to lie earned is often quite sufficient inducement for them to leave, though their new work may offer none of those opportunities of promotion which the railway service provides. In none of the railway departments in the world, said Mr. Ronayne, can men get on so quickly as in the loco. branch pf the New Zealand service, and the conditions of railway employees will be improved a good deal further by the Government Railway Classification Act, which will come into force on April 1. Under that Act the cleaner, who must not be more than 19 years of age, will receive 5s instead of 4s, with two annual increases of 6d and two of Is before he becomes entitled at the age of 22 to the full wage of 8s a day. By that time he is probably earning 8s 6d as a second-class fireman. Not, long afterwards he may be getting 9s 6d as a first-class fireman, and after a comparatively short further period he may be a second-class engine-driver at from 10s 3d to lis 6d a day. When he becomes a first-class driver the pay will have increased to 12s or 12s 6d, and any time he may fill a vacancy as running shed foreman or locomotive foreman. In the latter case his salary can increase up to £400 a year. Cleaners in New Zealand, it was stated, can become firemen and drivers more rapidly than in any other part of the world, owing to the rapid expansion of business. There are very few cleaners who are not acting firemen at least in two years, and yet the Department has difficulty in obtaining cleaners. What is the explanation? A few lads are deterred by the heavy nightwork at the start. A few have loft on account of ranging, which may have made some others afraid to join. This evil still exists, though it has been much diminished, and though the Department exerts supervision and makes the practice liable to severe penalties. For tlie first offence a, fine is inflicted up to the value of £2, and for a second offence the punishment is dismissal. The principal homo of ragging is the big shops. At various times the Department has had difficulty in obtaining cadets. Possibly they also have been deterred by fear of ragging, but there is no scarcity of them now. Not long ago advertisements in newspapers to cadets caused only six to come forward from the whole district between Palmerston North and New Plymouth. The cadets, like other railway servants, will benefit by the new Act. Their first salary will be £50 a year instead of £40.