WELLINGTON TEAMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14809, 12 October 1911, Page 9

WELLINGTON TEAMS.

THE TRAFFIC MANAGER. " , PITIED; BY THE MEN. ,y. ,/ i , The decision of the Wellington City Conn* \ cil, to appoint a traffic manager to th« ; tramways undertaking does not seem, -to have found much, favour with the mem- *" bers of the Tramways Employees' Union, At the monthly meeting of the union, held last Sunday morning, some strong re- \ marks were made on certain phases of' - the management of the Wellington tramc. ' One member is said 'to have'suggested ; a resolution expressing sympathy - with Mr. James, who is at present traffic inspector. ■■ The motion was not. pressed, as it .was not deemed advisable to express any;'formal opinion However, it was clear that-, generally speaking, the Union was' in sym- ■ . pathy with Mr. James, and from what was said it was evident that the members ■ considered that his position was not all ;a .; bed of roses. Members complained that ' Mr.. James had not been given al f I chance to 6how whether lift could handle j-• the traffic properly or ! not, and ? they did not think it right to bring in another ■ traffic man in Mr., James's place in such ' v circumstances. | • (^"4||§f /, Km| One of the charges made was that! f s there . had ? been i too < mnch interference ; by 5 SfiAjJ the Tramways Committee of the City il Council and one of-the officials. • It. was H i said ? that > Mr. James was supposed to bo-tIV , - t , 3 J i traffic inspector, but Mr. Cable, who w.is £ assistant-engineer, had a good deal to do i with the J traffic I mahasement. Ipftj /' ' • The men consider that the man who deals with the traffic need not be an engi- l'J neer. Traffic managers are ; born, hot made, 1 they contend. They were men who were able to see the requirements and deal with '-3 them the moment they arose/'" They needed to be great organisers. .Union* members - ' j consider that the management of the Wel- , "j lington tramways has been very bad all along, notwithstanding that there was con- N | siderably over half - a million of money i sunk in the undertaking. ■; The smallness of 4

the amount- the Council is putting aside ' i ■ j for depreciation is considered to be inade- • ' quate by the men, who know the rate a i. which the rolling stock wears out. "With .VA the present financing, when the rolling' *' ""'jrj stock - wears oat, there will be no - t money 'J| to replace it with, and the Council will . be looking for'another loan. Electrical equipment wears - out "very - quickly, they g§|jg& say, but the Council does' not appear to take much heed of the fact. - The reason given for the alleged mis--, management and for other trouble in the service is that the undertaking has been /" all along under the thumb of the Tramways Committee. The men maintain that '» whatever success has been attained in the traffic department is due to the efforts of Jo the men, who had put up with overload- -" j ing, and had worked on overcrowded cars " jT| without protest. The conductors realised % that people were extremely „ anxious 'to " avoid. delay, and they had tolerated a . great deal out of consideration for the % people. If it were not for tho, way tlio ' conductors had acted in this respect the ' present system of traffic management would - , | leave things in Ta* terrible ; state. When -' .>3 anything went wrong on the loops or else- i where in the running it was the men who ; righted matters in most cases. Generally, vV£j whatever needed attending to was fixed up , before the traffic management'.** representative got to the scene. The system was a I got going smoothly again, but the people read: " The traffic officers were quickly r r;t on the scene and had: matters righted in : a : very short: time." So it is \ claimed• that>. ! the men' have been the means of giving the ' * | city as good a service, as it ? has, but, as " -„-J j was stated at the meeting, the men do nob ' >'« blame Mr. James for the alleged misman- . | S agement. They say he has not had a fair; x '''\ f; chance. They point to Mr. Alexander, in ' ■!._>; Dunedin, who draws a salary of £500 a year,' and they say he has a free hand. ' ''/« [ They give as an example of the result of S allowing a free hand the case of Sydney, j and contrast it with Wellington. The I man who controls the tram traffic of Sydney has 980 cars to handle, and ,he can I tell where any one of these cars is at any 5\ 'f\ time, while the system is working. Then, they add, the traffic manager in Wei - ' ton could hardly tell you where one of his 80 cars was. ' * At the City Council meeting at which ' : it was decided to appoint a traffic manager, the Mayor stated that he believed ' ; the present superintendent of traffic had found the concent beyond his powers. This ' some of the , men resented. Tho "•£ traffic, they say, might have got beyond ■' - Mr., James. Mr.'James was hero when ■ K~ ,| the system was started—when there were only 12 cars—and he had seen the system • A grow, and " ought to know -what is re-. - quired. An opinion has teen expressed -; f that the Council is trying to make a job , to put someone into. Another point on which the men express annoyance is "the ease with which .'vA the Council votes increased salaries to men " in high positions, while the rank and file liiil cannot get what they, want, even though , x j thejy are. entitled to it." * {"_ -» However, "nothing startling is likely to ■happen until after the Conciliation - Court ? - sits: there may be something - startling' after that." .