THE RAILWAY SERVICE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 12586, 17 October 1911, Page 7

THE RAILWAY SERVICE.

(Special to Hernld.)

AUCKLAND, tins day

Mr M. J, Mack, general secretary of the Amalgamated Society of Raihvay Servants, informed a reporter that the decision of the Department to select inspectors from the officers who have had experience as guards was the outcome of tho strong protest made by the Society of Railway Servants against the system of employing "spies" to detect misdemeanors or carelessness. The men affected did not object to proper inspection as a check on their methods, but they only resented the recent attempt to inaugurate the "spy" m what wa.s considered an underhand way. The

"spies" travelled m the carriages m plain clothes, and by various subterfuges made, efforts to entrap the officers. Acute indignation was aroused, and the whole weight of the society was at the back of the protest lodged against such a principle being initiated by the management. Men of long service, with exceptional qualifications for the work, had now been appointed from the ranks of the guards, and Mr Mack ventured the opinion that no one m the service would take exception to the system now adopted.