RAILWAY APPEAL BOARD.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XIV, Issue 3309, 30 April 1909, Page 6

RAILWAY APPEAL BOARD.

Electric Telegraph—Press Association. Wanganui, April 29.

The North Island Railway Appeal Board concluded hearing cases this morning, when the appeal of Driver McGurk, who was dismissed from the service as the result of a recent collision between ,a mail train and a shunting engine and van, was concluded. The decision was reserved 1 . The appeal of H. J. Donovan, leading boilermaker, Eastown workshops, and first on the D 3 list, which is the highest grade, was upheld. Donovan was not given a rise in wages when the general increase was made on Ist April under the Act of 1908, on the ground that he was alleged to be inefficient as compared with one other of three on tlie same grade. The Board held that inefficiency and misconduct were the only grounds for withholding an increase, and this the Department did not allege. The Department admitted that Donovan did the work given to him efficiently, hut alleged that lie wiais incapable of doing the highest work in the trade, which the Board held was a matter for grading by the Department, and Donovan being classified on the highest grade was entitled to the general rise. Mr Kenny, who had been chairman of the Board for twelve years, and who retires on superannuation, farewelled' by the members of the Board and representatives of the appellants this morning, this being his last sitting on the Board.

Mr Veitch, President of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, eulogised the work done by Mr Kenny, and spoke in terms of general satisfaction with the Board’s decisions under Mr Kenny.