RAILWAY OFFICERS

Southland Times, Issue 19277, 23 June 1924, Page 6

RAILWAY OFFICERS

THE WELLINGTON CONFERENCE. SATURDAY’S BUSINESS. (Per United Press Association.; WELLINGTON, June 22. The annual conference of the Railway Officers' Institute on Saturday decided to request the Department that all instruction books be revised and consolidated and that any amendment be supplied in slip form, suitable for placing in its relative position in the book to which it applied. The issue of new tariff was another matter which it was claimed demanded immediate attention, the State of the existing tariff being described as a disgrace which no commercial concern would tolerate for a moment. An Invercargill remit was passed that clerks who had to deal with time payment of locomotive second division men, owing to the difficulties and complications that were constantly increasing with the activities of the E.F. and C.A. b given a higher status. At the request of the Wellington branch it was decided to urge that all members be given an opportunity of qualifying in such special work as the Department deemed essential to fit them for administrative posts. It was agreed that members promoted from the Second Division after passing the examination test should receive an increase in pay of not less than £2O per year. The following remits from the Wellington branch were carried unanimously: That the conference bus no confidence in a system of promotion which provides for “special merit” in that in the theory it sounds right, but that in practice it has proved to be a failure wherever tried, and has caused incessant and unnecessary turmoil and unrest in the Service; That the conference agkin takes strong exception to the departure from principle of the Classification Act in making promotions by such subterfuges as “Order-in-Council” or “by Governor-Gen-eral” to higher grades in the Service. The following remit from the Executive Committee was endorsed: That it be represented to the Department that efficient and recommended members in Grade 7, the lowest grade for clerks, should not be held at the maximum of that grade after the completion of 14 years of service, but should then proceed to the next grade. A social was held on Saturday evening, presided over by Mr R. W. McVilley, General Manager.

In the course of his remarks Mr Robertson, President of the institute, stated that for the three and a-half years of his presidency, he had always received every courtesy at the hands of Mr McVilley. When able to grant their requests he had done so, and when unable, had always given his reasons. The members of the Institute could co-operate with the General Manager without sacrificing their principles in any way. He was the one they should assist. Mr McVilley stated that after his 45 years’ service he could say, having regard to the policy under which they were run and the special circumstances created, and he did not make them, the railways performed a useful service in spite of mismanagement. In the North Island where the principal railway business was, they had the chance to run things and had paid £6 10/6 per cent. In the South Island, with its level roads, much open country and sparse population they paid £2 2/6 per cent. The south had been a burden to them and the Department was not responsible for the policy that had decided where the lines should be laid down. If at the end of the year things were bad, it was said to be mismanagement. He had received valuable support, mentioning Messrs Sterling, Buxton and Bevin. What he had done they could do. Mr McVilley hinted that it would not be long before he would be retiring.