A RAILWAY NEED.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 126, 15 October 1912, Page 8

A RAILWAY NEED.

GENERAL MANAGER. WHO WILL SUIT? By Telegraph—Own Correspondent. Wellington, Last Night. Under this heading the writer of a special article in the Evening Post says that New Zealand needs a general manager of railways competent to assist with various reforms, but first and foremost he must be an expert, able to cut down the cost of haulage. Undoubtedly such a man must have general administrative ability, but such ability or ordinary commercial acumen is obviously not sufficient equipment for the difficult position. Business talent is the great outstanding qualification for the managership of a British railway struggling against keen competition to secure and foster traffic, but in New Zealand the traffic offers itself when ordinary transport facilities exist, and the best possible business talent for competitive railway purposes may not be capable of saving one ton of fuel or one month of wages of those engaged in the working traffic. Technical knowledge to deal with the many highly technical operations involved in carrying one passenger or one ton of goods one mile safely and economically is the necessary equipment of any man chosen to improve appreciably the present unsatisfactory state of the New Zealand railways. The great fault of Ministerial control is not so much political patronage or improper political influence, however wide the door may be opened for these evils, but ability to appredate technical problems and the inevitable dependence on clerical assistance for facts and figures. A Minister has no time to make himself conversant with the details of his Department, and has to j rely on clerical support.

CLERICAL CONTROL. This country has the absurd spectacle of technical departments placed under the control of clerical under-secretaries, with perhaps only a superficial knowledge of the important technical side of the work under their control, in conjunction with a non-expert Minister. The late Public Service Commission did not fully appreciate the importance of this point, but Its comments on the state of affairs revealed dn the Public Works Department must have been illuminating to engineers throughout the Dominion. The huge sums wasted by this unbusinesslike control must not be doubled by extending the practice to the Railways Department, but if such a waste is to be avoided technical knowledge of train: working and running must form a very ] important part of the equipment of a general manager. TEE POSSIBLE SAVING. Assuming that the conditions in New Zealand prevent the working expenses from fading lower than 30 per cent, above those of Queensland (and 10 per cent, more than covers the differeice in wages) the yearly saving on the present' traffic would be—• Division Saving Mechanical engineers £248,000 Maintenance engineers £ 156,000 Traffic inspectors £175,000 Total £579,000 NEW ZEALANDERS' CLAIMS. One critic (an officer of the Railway Department) has said that it is illogical to expect one man to possess all the knowledge required to reorganise these three technical divisions of the service, ani he made the suggestion that three experts should be imported. Control by a board consisting of three such experts has several desirable features, but the critic did mot discuss the fact that the conditions in the Dominion were not those familiar to experts in more settled communities. Care must be taken to obtain the serviees of a man or men from railway system of a comparable nature, such as exist perhaps in other British colonies. It is a matter of common sense that if the eervices of a competent New Zealander are available they should have a prior claim, because his knowledge of the country's peculiar conditions would have immense value. The success that always attended the running and management of the WellingtonManawatu railway proves that it is not hopeless to look for a competent man or men 'in New Zealand.

SUMMARY OF QUALIFICATIONS. To sura up, the disquieting drift of all divisions .of the present system from efficiency and economy demand a thorough overhaul of each of the three branches of the service. Engineering ability is perhaps the first requisite, as it is in this branch that the largest expenditure occurs and the largest saving can be expested. In addition to experience and proved puccess in mechanical and maintenance engineering, gained on some system of light line railways, such as those of New Zealand, knowledge of the laying of and construction of .railways through country similar to the territory here will be needed, when the Railway Department takes over the design and construction of its own lines. This must bo done shortly. Experience in traffic su- < perintendenee where th« volume of trade is relatively, small and of varied character, is equally essential, with engineering knowledge. Finally, experience in the . general administration and the handling j of men, especially in the colonies, wkere men have a temperament of their own, I is required, and a general knowledge of' the trade products and possibilities of this Dominion is a recommendation. Unless someone is available who has had experience on a system where one man still does everything, it is possible that three men will be needed.