IMPORTED LOCOMOTIVES.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 197, 24 September 1914, Page 6

IMPORTED LOCOMOTIVES.

THE LABOUR STANDPOINT. A PLEA FOB LOCAL INDUSTRY. From A Special Correspondent. WELLINGTON, September 21. Manager Hi ley's idea of importing American locomotives is not getting through unchallenged. Stoutly .Protectionist always, the Labour people will again be on the Government doorstep to declare for local manufacture. It will be little use telling the Wellington Trades Council that time is the essence of the contract. They have had tliat tale pushed on to them before.

When John Andrew Millar let a contract for locomotives to Price Bros., of the Thames, it was because of urgency, he said. Before that contract was completed another order for 20 locomotives was given to the same firm. They had the machinery, the Minister said, which would enable them tc do the work more promptly than the Government. Workshops. What he neglected to say, however, was -that most of'the machinery was installed by Price Bros, after they got the first Government, contract.

When Mr Herries took office as Minister of Railways, the Wellington Trades Couucil tried to get him Committed to a big scheme involving engine building, decentralisation and town planning. The suggestion was that the

"THE PERILS OF PETROSINO." Second instalment in \tb-morrow night's SUN.

Minister, should lay down new works especially for construction, leaving the present .Railway Workshops for repair's. The • works were to be established iri->' land so as to take the population into the heart Of the country. And the site of the town which would rise up round the works was to become and remain the property of the State. The Minister begged to be excused on the expense. Now it is proposed to scheme in millions, and the first slice of the cash is to go to America. So long as the Government > continues to let out contracts for building locomotives in batches of" twenty- there will be no efficient Railways Workshops in the .Dominion. So long as the public hearken to this cry of urgency, imported -managers will advocate imported en-

gines. Some five years ago a Board of Enquiry, consisting of. three engineers, reported upon the efficiency of the Ad-' dington Workshops. This board expressed; the opinion', that •no more engines should be built there under present conditions. The board considered that if the department determined to itself continue the manufacture of locomotives either: —-Additional appliances should be installed in new manufacturing shop sections. with which there should be no interchange f or an independent general railway manufacturing shop should be set up in a suitable locality.

These recommendations were arrived at after evidence had shown that the Addington men were shifted round from new work to repairs and from repairs to new work without system and without economy. It w r as also shown that the Addington men had to make the more intricate parts of the engines for the Thames contractors. They even dismantled their partially completed work so that the parts might be sent forward to Price Bros, aim not involve the contractors in delay. Some improved appliances, have been added to Addington frpm time to time, but the important suggestion for. an independent general railway manufacturing shop has been stored to rust. The need for so many as twenty engines in one batch proves how necessary it is to lay down new plants. In the Newport Workshops, Victoria, it is estimated that if they can lay down ten locomotives at a time they save 25 per cent, in the cost of labour. Year by year there falls on a sluggish Parliament whole showers of papers, reports on ajlnost every 'subject on the earth, and tinder -thei earth.

. . . like a tlie river, : One.moment seen, then-gone for ever,

Persons interested in the engineering trade may remember a report on the subject by Mr M. P. Cameron presented to Parliament in 1911. ."The evidence," this report states, "goes to ■show' that the older "established engineering works are suffering a. decided depression in .'<-tra.de.'' Would nt not be better in the cireimistaiices to let our New Zealand firms have some of the smaller lines from the Government works, and ■allow Addington and other Government,-workshAps, .to concentrate" for a-time oh new engines. It is admitted that all our Goverimient "workshops are primarily repair shops. * All

new work has to be set aside at rush times to enable the full staff to cope 'wil-li. repairs. By .giving; repairs and the /classes of new work out locally -the - present workshops system might be reversed for the time .being.:As a contributing cause to the local depression in .engineering, Mr Cameron cites the fact that, so many harbour boards, city councils, road boards, and public bodies generally send abroad for their requirements. For example, a local body called tenders for an iron bridge costing about £22,000. Though the local prices were only £2OO higher, the importing agent got the order. But the bridge afterwards cost £IOOO over the contract price, owing to difficulties arising out of faulty Avorkinanship. There is the further point to be considered, that when American engines of i stock siices haye been imported they have had to be altered to suit New Zealand conditions. And then there is the all-important question of quality; Mr Cameron, jn his report, states that the engineering trade has reason t,o complain of the quality, of American engines. In a ■memorandum presented to Parliament iu 1905) Mr Ronayne, the Manager of Railways, is emphatic on the relative merits of New Zealand and American work. He claims that the American engines which were last imported into this country do not compare with the Addiugton-manufjictured engines of similar type, either in class 1 of workmanship or the material used therein-. Now we propose to go to the American market for its interior pro : j duce while we sit down ourselves ami moaii tSiat the time is not ripe. JOHN PLOWMAN".