RAILWAY SERVANTS' GRIEVANCES.

NZ Truth, Issue 108, 13 July 1907, Page 4

RAILWAY SERVANTS' GRIEVANCES.

It was anticipated,; and thoughtfully arranged by the Grovernment that the debate on the Address-in-Reply should expire early of inanition, and 'everything pointed to the desired consummation until Hornsby, strenuous member for Wairarapa, arose and plunged the Chamber into a debate on railway matters. He upset the pot, so to speak, and introduced into the discussion an electrical atmosphere that brought the best speakers to their feet, and prolonged matters beyond the time limit mentally fixed by the Executive. .. In ■■ ' a debate on the Add-ress-in-Reply, members are permitted to rove from Dan to Beersheba and from heaven to the other place m their choice of subjects, and Efornsby seized' his opportunity. It is the first time the. railway men have had their grievances placed directly before Parliament, and the [ member for Wairarapa may be regarded as a sort of railway Moses, leading the underpaid servants out I , of modern Egypt., It is not a considerable time back that Hornsby was appointed editor of the "Railway Review, ' ' the olfi rjial organ of the • Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, arid be signalised his , appearance by saying .unpleasant things about the managesnen-t. The things happened to bo true, bu;b for a railway organ to say anything derogatory about the management is rank I blasphemy, although it is difficult to see what else the newspaper . exists for. Needless to say, Hornsby had a warm time, but being a man of martial disposition, he stunnped the cor.ivlry from Auckland 1 to the Bluff, at his own expense, putting matters plainly before the men, and < rose m the Blouse on the first opportunity to Voice the grievances, of. the railway servants. Our railways are probably the most profitable' asset our country, .has got, and. it is the ha-bit to brag about the revenue from, this source and the' concessions made Ito the travelling public, but few realise that this revenue and these concessions are rendered possible by sweating the men employed. Hornsby asks for a. living wage. The Appeal Board also seems to bo abortive, and the general manager *is King, Czar, and General Poo Bah, and from his decision there is practically no ap- | peal . Hornsby says that at the Rankside en-ciiuiry the judges were the i officials who sihoiild have been on trial themselves for 1 mismanagement, and he gave instances where accidents must have occurred were it not for good" luck, or the grace of God, or some Providential circumstanoe beyond the ken of th© mere human. On a holiday, when tbe ordinary timer-table is battered into unrecognisableness, the driver and guard are handed a mass of printed instructions, which j.t is physically impossible for thorn to absorb m the time, aud with excursions and specials and pilot ■ engines bobbing up suddenly on the track, the dr iver is m a constant perspiration, and ages rapidly, and loses his nerve, and some day, when the particular saving grace which used to look after him retires for a moment to see a man, about a dog, there is a crash and an c-noxvivy. and if the driver didn't n-erish with his engine, he is dismissed from- the service — if he escapes a charge of manslaughter. Hornsfby wants a simplification of the instructions by collecting together the information relating .to each particular route, instead of leaving the coal-grimed driver to thumb a whole volume frantically m search of matter pertaining to his own particular rim. Then there .is the. way the men are' treated, -.the line of de-mnrko-tion which divides t-h-e- superior official from the lowah ordahs m the service, and other matters. The men cannot reach the Minister m charge by letter, and whenever tbey write About thci-r «rr>Bvances they -are haunted by the knowledge that they are writinrr to the persons t^ev are complaining about, and' thnt thencefortn the writers may consider themselves marked men! .■, Hosra-n. of jW-rvngamu, lot some more light into i:u vfc&*Jmy hitherto been a forWd-^n subject ; also members Poole. r<^ey. Wilford, and others, arid it sr^ is aR thouirh Hornshv's unexnoc^j uprisine: will be productive of me good for the railway .servan^f Aliwlv Sirjrie has appointed 'him self Minister m cbarsre m F v£pession to Hall-Jones, wbich is a>roort sign, and reforms are m sight. Af they do not materialise there vyfa be a row.