RAILWAYMEN’S PRIVILEGES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21255, 9 February 1931, Page 10

RAILWAYMEN’S PRIVILEGES.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —Would you allow me to reply to some of the correspondents who are so free in attacking railwaynien and their supposed privileges. “ Fair Deal,” in your issue of the 3rd, writes of the free land which railwaynien have. Let me tell him that the only free land railwaymen get is the grazing right to four acres which they must fence with a four-wire fence at their own expense. . Land is granted only if it is unoccupied and unrented. I have been a surfaceman "bn the railways for 10 years and have only been able to obtain land at one station on which to run a cow—not five or six as your correspondent suggests. I was on the main line in Canterbury before coming (for health reasons) to Central Otago. There was a strip of five miles there on each side of the line to the depth of over a chain, and it will please “ Fair Deal ” to know that I could not get a foot of it as it was rented to farmers, two of whom had over 1000 acres of their own, all ’first-class land. House rente have doubled since the beginning of this month. “Fair Deal” will smile to learn that I pay 13s 6d for a house of five small rooms, with no bathroom, and with no water laid on. water being procurable from tanks, which are most times dry, and over 100 miles from Dunedin. Far better houses have been let here for 10s per week by private owners. The present rentals are based on floor space, and that comes hard on men with large families, as they require .the largest houses. Let me now give some of your farmer correspondents a glance at the surfaceman’s wages and expenditure as affecting a man with a family of six children. My wages for the four-weekly period is £l7 12s. From this must be deducted for rent £2 14s, for superannuation £1 2s 2d, for sick and benefit fund 2s Cd, for unemployment levy 2s. This leaves us £l3 13s with which to feed and clothe eight persons, and supply coal, light, medical attendance, and numerous other items. This works out at £1 14s per head per month, or Is 2icl per day. If “ Fair Deal ” or any other of your correspondents can tell my wife how to feed and clothe the family and supply medical attention and sundry other things necessary to keep the human body in good health on Is 2Ad per day she will be thankful for the information, as the problem causes her endless worry. I may state that my wife has not had a holiday in three years and with most of my family it is the same, nor has any of us been to a place of amusement for over a year. We get a free pass on the railway once a year, but where is the money coming from to supply board and keep when we get off the train? I suppose it is a railwayman’s privilege to sleep under a gorse hedge on his holiday. With regard to superannuation, which seems to be a sore point with “Ratepayer ” and others, I may add a few words. I pay six per cent, into this fund, or £l3 15s 2d per year. At 60, after 26 years’ service. I will get somewhere in the neighbourhood of 30s: at 65, a few shillings more if I work till that age. If “ Ratepayer ” has a wife, he will draw in old age pension an amount nearly equal at the age of 65, and in the meantime he will pay nothing into any fund. It may surprise " Ratepayer ” and otliers to know that at least 75 per cent, of the lower-paid railwaynien would sooner be out of the superannuation .fund if they could get out. Now, I would like to ask those farmer correspondents a question. How is it that no farmers’ sons are on the railways. Why, if it is such a good job, does not the farmer get his boys on railway work instead of putting them on farms" where, according to the farmers themselves, they spend a lifetime of struggle trying to make a living? Employment on the railways is open to all, and if your correspondent thinks it is so attractive why do they not try and join up and share in all those blessings which the railwaymen are supposed to enjoy. I am, etc., Surfaceman. February 6.