NEW POSITION

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 24894, 16 May 1944, Page 6

NEW POSITION

TRANSPORT BOARD

ASSISTANT-MANAGER CHOSEN Chosen from 48 applicants, Mr. Edward Brunton Foster, claims superintendent of the Auckland Transport Board, was appointed assistant engineer and manager of the board yeterday. His salary will be £BSO a year. The applicants for the post included seven members of the board's staff, several from other parts of New Zealand, and a large number from Australia, according to a statement by the chairman, Mr. W. H. Nagle, last month. The names of five applicants selected by a committee as the most promising were considered by the board at yesterday's meeting.

Mr. Foster was born in Wellington in 1886. He was educated at Wellington College, later training as a mechanical engineer* A long and varied acquaintance with transport services commenced when he joined the New Zealand Express Company, Limited, in Wellington in 1913, having control of the motor department lor the whole of the North Island. He was with the company in Wellington, Hawke's Bay, and later in Auckland. In 1925, Mr. Foster obtained a position as bus supervisor for the Auckland City Council, then in control of the tramways and a few buses. Ho retained this position -when the Auckland Transport Board was formed to control the services. Mr. Foster was appointed claims superintendent of the board in 1.930. A keen yachtsman in his youth, and still the owner of a 14ft. boat, Mr. Foster's main sporting interest to-day is bowling.

THAMES HOSPITAL REBUILDING PROPOSALS REVISION OF SCHEME LIKELY (0.C.) THAMES, Monday The Minister of Health, the Hon. A. H. Nordmeyer, visited Thames to-day to meet representatives of contributing local bodies to discuss with them proposals of the Thames Hospital Board for the raising of a loan for rebuilding the hospital on the present site. Various objections were raised, including the inability of some local bodies to pay an increased rate and the incidence of hospital taxation. The Minister said he doubted the ability of the local bodies to meet even the first instalment for the loan. He would take up the matter with the department to see if the project could be revised, and the existing buildings used, so that the cost could be met by a more reasonable amount.

TRAFFIC PROBLEMS

TRAIVIS AT ELLERSLIE

A suggestion that the Auckland Transport Board should consider extending the train track at the Great South Road terminus for a short distance into Wairakei Road, where there is already a single inward line from the Ellerslie racecourse, was made in a letter received by the board yesterday from the Commissioner of Transport, Mr. G. L. Lauren son.

The suggestion was made, Mr. Laurenson said, following representations by the town clerk of One Tree Hill, Mr. A. Leese, concerning the traffic hazard caused at present through trams standing opposite the shopping area in Great South Road. He appreciated that the board would be reluctant to extend any permanent way in view of the ultimate intention to replace trams with trolley buses. However, it appeared that the obstruction to traffic movement was rather serious at the terminus.

The matter was referred to the Works Committee.

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

EMPLOYMENT AFTER WAR SYDNEY, May 14 The chief research officer of the Commonwealth Department of Post-war Reconstruction, Dr.. Lloyd < Ross,_ emphasised his belief that industrial relations should be on a voluntary basis. In an address before the Institute of Engineers he said: "I deny emphatically that planning implies conscription of labour or that full employment means regimentation of manpower. "I agree that planning, guidance, and some controls are necessary for a time, but contend that there will be a greater feeling of freedom than existed before the war and a deeper sense of democratic participation in industry than existed during the depression. "In considering the position of manpower in the post-war world we must, however, recognise that the pattern of distribution of manpower which existed before the war was one that was generally obtained without detailed individual coercion, and that the same influences will be in existence in the postwar world, with one exception—fear of unemployment."