SYDNEY TRAMS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13660, 31 July 1908, Page 7

SYDNEY TRAMS.

A GREAT FIASCO.

UL'MAN COURSING MATCH,

Press Associatitm-By Telegraph-Copyright SYDNEY, July 30.

The tram strike was the greatest fiasco imaginable. Although the mats meeting declared . in.favour' of continuing the battle, and the uwn left the building singing '"Rule Britannia," they became individualists when they reached the open air, , and btsieged the tram depot to sign on.

Members of > the tramway x executive •tried to get away from the Trades Hall quietly, but they were observed, and a crowd of 1500 gave a roar of indignation, and called, upon Mr Lawton to stop. He and his companions broke into a run, tho crowd pursuing, crying, "Lawton, the traitor! He's tbe man who 6old us." The four members ran like hares and road metal flew like hail. The human coursing match ended in the men taking si to lit r in a hotel alley. One of the executive turned in a ■doorway, presented a revolver and threatened to shoot the first man who crossed the threshhold. The police reinforcements arrived, and quietened the mob who contented themselves with hooting tbe Parliamentary Labour members and cheering the Labour Council. Nearly £BOO was subscribed by the citizens aa a reward for tho tramway men who remained loyal to the Government.

-- Mrs Kenna, Secretary to the Tailoresses Union, was arrested for calling a tram-driver a scab. She was bailed out, and later the case against her was dismissed. ASSEMBLY MOTION NEGATIVED. •SYDNEY, July- 50. Mr Meagher's amendment in the Legislative Assembly condemning the Governments attitude in reference to the strike, and the system of espionage in the tramway department, was negatived by 47 votes to 30.

STRIKERS RESUME DUTY. Received 10 p.m.. .July 30th. SYDNEY, July 30. Tho bnlk of the strikers have rtsumed duty, and the normal tram service has been restored. All the men at Newcastle liave been reinstated excepting five mem--h"irs of tha. local branch of tlie Tramwav L nion, whc6e reinstatement Las "been postponed pending an inquirv.. THE POSITION EXPLAINED. SPECIAL OFFCER SYSTEM. THE, CASE AGAINST CONDUCTOR CROUCHER. Sydney newspaper by this week's mail grve interesting particulars of the attitude_ of the tramway men and the ctmniisroioners in the dispute which culminated last Friday in a strike. What brought matters to a bead was the refusal of the Commissioners to reinstate Conductor Croucher, who had been ■ dismissed for alleged irregularities. In order to appreaiate the position it will be well to quote from the " Telegraph ' an explanation ' of the charge »gainst Croucher. "The Tramwav. Lepartment has what it calls 'series of tickets,' each one being indicated by. a large letter opposite tlie number. There are the A, b, C, D, and E serks. If, to-day, tickets of the A series are in use by a particular depot (each has its own tickets) then to-morrow it will be the B series, and so on until the letters are exhausted and the round begins with A again. The same series is not used two days running by any depot. The charge' against Croucher was that he, as conductor on a Dul-wich-hill tram, itsued on a certain day two cancelled tickets of the previous day's series to two persons, who proved to be special officers, and who boarded the tram a few stops before the terminus wis reached. When called upon for an explanation some days afterwards, the conductor protested that any tickets he issued were corect, and that whether the men were special officers or not, whatever tickets they actually got from him were right. That .had been his plea right through, and so strong does it appear to life fellow-employees that they have taken action upon it aa declared in their resolutions."

THE CASE FOR THE MEN. The case for the men was put clearly and at length before the commissioners by a deputation from the Employees' Union. • Tbe president, Jlr. Lawton, said the special officer system was regarded by the employees as uniquitous and obnoxious from every point of view. The union had alreadv made a legitimate attempt to have (the objectionable system removed. It was dealt with at a tramway inquiry. The men at that time felt that they were being harassed -unduly by thtse special officers, and that petty and trifling complaints were made against them. The men were'penalised in many ways. Their good conduct holidays were stopped, and, in instances, they were fined or punished in other ways. The complaint was that the employees had no opportunity cf being confronted with their accusers. The board of inquiry "had made certain recommendations, and had managed to remove tie "strong, feeling which existed

amongst the men at that time. What they had asked for was the abolition of tho special officer system.. The board considerably improved the position of thei employees 60 far as the special officer' system was concerned, but did not wholly remove the objections which had been raised. : A BROKE X iIAX. On March 11th of the present year a .deputation from the tramway executive interviewed the present- Chief Commissioner in regard to this system. The trouble then, he thought, arose from the dismissal of Conductor W. Freestone, who was reported by the special olticers, and on their report was dismissed. The. Appeal Board, dismissed the man's appeal, and the Commissioned upheld the decision of the Appeal .Board. Before interviewing the tommiuaoners the "union had endeavoured to obtain redress legally. i'leestone went out ol service in broken health and branded practicably as a ielon. 'lbe advice of couij&el consulted was to tbe effect that there was practically no remedy at law. 'lhe Chief Commissioner personally was in sympathy with the deputation, but said /he was auvistrd by his olficeis that it ithis absolutely nectcsary that tbe special officer system should continue in older to step leuJiayis in tUe revenue.

then there was the case of Alexander, who was reported by special oificers. That case, it was submitted, showed that' the .system was unreliable and liable to abta-.iv- FtirtAinate.y for Alexander he was able to locate passengers who tar veiled on that particular trip with which lie wits concerned. These he produced before the Appeal Board, which, after, hearing one or two witnesses, upheld the appeal, and Alexander was reinstated, being paid for the time he had lest. Had not Alexander been able to produce his witnesses he, like others, wouid have gone out of the service with a stain upon his character.

There was also another case, continued Mr Lawton, in which a special officer sword before the Appeal Board that lie saw a conductor tear a ticket from his case, although the officer was; at the time fitting in Iront of the conductor. The board upheld the man's appeal, holding that the evidence of the special officer was unreliable.' HOW SPECIAL OFFICERS ACT. 1 Mr. Lawton said the special olfioers boarded a car, they purchased tickets, and afterwards they left the tram, and, according to instructions, they reported the time of the trip, the number of the car, the number of the conductor, and forwarded these particulors to the department. These reports, lie believed,' were afterwards .scrutinised by the officers of the bead office.'- The deputation was not there to advocate dishonesty. Xhey were.there to ask the Commissioners to help them 150 far as dishonest men were concerned, lhey were strongly of the opinion that the service should be purged of this' particular cla<ai of men.. ■ ;

The Chief Commissioner: lam very glad to hear you say. that. . ifr. Lawtion: They were advocating the case of. the honest man who : was liable to be a victim at any time, unfortunately, under the system which prevailed to-day. For that reason they said that the abolition of this system wou.d be beneficial both to the department and to the men. Tlie men wouid then recognise., that the Commissioners were ; endeavouring- to deal fainy . a'ud squarely with them. The Appeal Board .investigated the system of special officers, and he was informed that the 'majority of that board were absolutely opposed to that system of the tramway" service. Thus the"'Appeal Board has strengthened the position of the men' considerably. ' They, recognised that the Appeal Board was 'an impartial tribunal. The position of the men was also strengthened bv the fact that' the Railway 'Commissioners were m sympathy with the employees and the abolition of this system. It was mentioned incidentally that the special officer system existed in all large establishments, and the post office was cited. He pointed out that there was no parralled between the post office aud the tramways. - In the postal department the man who commits an offence is caught red-handed. The detective sees him and he is brought to book immediately. There- is no dilly-dallying, or two days elapsing between the offence and the time the man is asked to plead.

Mr. A. C. Warton (secretary of tlie un-; ion) ea id the 1 , C'ommissioneie Lad introduced the espionage isystem because a; leakage in revenue existed,: but experi-/ ence proved that the remedy was a greatv deal worse than the disease. The Appeal t Board had come to that conclusion. The fact that the Appeal Board had -reinstated men who had been dismissed as the. resu.tof reports by special offioeie could only, be taken as an absolute condemnation of ; the systitta. Conductor Alexander, had. been in the fortunate position oi bjriug able, to obtain conclusive, evidence as to his; innocence, but that, might) not happen' again in a" century. The Commissioner; would reco'gnifco that the men posset bed their rights in regard to this- matter. The men had the right to say whether they would work, under the conditions imposed. He'hoped the Commissioner would be prepared to abolish the system forthwith.

Driver McCarthy'said they had_.nO._desire to bolster up dishonest men, jb.ut iin-; der the present system honest men. were liable at any moment to be charged with offences; which they had no chance of disproving. The special officers might b? honest, but at the same time careless; and; by marking a wrong ticket might shatter the character of-a righteous man. •* . Driver Wallace said the deputation was asking the Commissioners to abolish 'a. system which ' prevented . an' accused procuring evidence to rebut the charge made against him. Tlw conductors did not he&r

of any alleged irregularity-until two or three days after it had occurred,-and they were then as powerless, as new-born babjs to obtain evidence to lay before the Appeal Board, or the higlier tribunal consisting of the Chief Commissioner. Under those circumstaaiees what was tiha value of the right to 'appeal? The employees recognised that an innocent -man was liable; to fail a victim to this espionage system, in which event he not only lest his employment, but what was more important, 'his reputation ' for honesty. There was- a case in which a conductor who lost his position in the service owing to this system tried to . obtain a license' for an hotel, but when it was found out that h© was dismissed, -his application was refused. This espionage system is against the system- of British- justice' and fair play. . , THE.. CHIEF COMMISSIONER'S REPLY. i The Chief - Commissioner (Mr. Johnson) said the cases mentioned by Mr. Lawton of men being reinstated by the Appead Board showed how the safety of the men was safeguarded. - In a large body. of men there was bound to be a few dishonest, and they , would admit that It was desirable that the offenders should be discovered by every legitimate means. That was clearly in the interest of honest men. 'lhe men had made certain ueiiunds. They had demanded the immediate-abolition of the special officer system, and the reinstatement of Conductor Croucher. He thought that they would agree with him that the wording of the'ir reisolution was not very happy. He would not put it stronger. ih e y came there that afternoon to prefer requests, 'lhat was a v?ry different thing to making a demand. A demand seemed to imply that there was a consequence behind it it was not granted, but he understood the deputation to say that they did not come" to hold a pistol at the heads of- the commissi oners. If they did they would see at once what a difficult position they placed-.the commissioners in. Under no circumstances could they agree to accept suggestions from the deputation on these terms. At the same time the commissioners were absolutely willing, and always had been willing, •to discuss across tlie table any grievances that the men in the had, and the men knew that as well as he did. \ v THE SYSTEM EXPLAINED.

The system objected to had been described as one of " espionage" and. the " pimp" system. Personally he did not believe in the first place that many of the men understood what it actually was, and he was absolutely certain that the general public did not understand it,. at all. What was it? Two men—-there had never been more than two men.employed at one time—.were instructed to proceed on various lines of'-railway and lines of tramway, to To'-go as ordinary meinbeis of tlie< travelling public, pay their fares,.-and .obtain their tickets, and they probably inucte from sixteen to eighteen trips a day. What did they do when they got to the end of their journey? I'hey marked down the number of the car, the number of the conductor, and they niade a memorandum in their pocket-book of the journey, whether up, or "down the line, upon which they had . been, travelling, the time-and 'place where , they joined , the tram, and the time and place where they alighted, and they also marked the nam-' ber of the ticket and its colour. The result was a sheet like that which he now pro. duced. Would the deputation like, to sue one? " 1

A-member r We are all drivers. The Cluef - Conmutisioner,: That is a rather curious circumstance. ; Another member: We are members of the-executive. • , ... , The ' Chief Commissioner : That; of course, explains it. Well, the reports of the special officeis are sent into the department, where they were inspected and compared with the conductois' journals. He thought he could say thai, in the case of 95 per cent, of the repot tjj'there-was absolutely 110 necessity for further action. But what he wished to emphasise particularly—was that these two special men bought their tickets, paying "their fares as ordinary -travellers, and sent in their reports, with no more knowledge of whether there was any regularity or not than the man in the moon.. What then became of the statement that these men " trumped up' cases?" So long as a conductor did his duty and issued the right ticket, and'made up his journal properly, could they - imagine any possibility of an injustice being uone him? That, was the whole story, and because the system had been employed with -excellent results, it was threatened that the people of Sydney were to be inconvenienced, and their tramway system was to be dislocated.

The Chief Commissioner here read an extract from the report of the special board in 1906 to the effect that," admitting that the employment of special officers necessarily envolved some irritation, 'especially in cases of the fes diligent employees, they were of the opinion that it is necessary to maintain efficiency and enforce discipline. So' much, the report added, was admitted by witnesses cidled by the union.. FULLEST CONSIDERATION PRO- . SEISED. In closing the interview, the Chief Commissioner repeated - that the fullest consideration would be given to the-sugges-tion made for enabling an accused to secure has evidence in defence, and if the Commissioners could seei their way to modify • the existing system, whilst still preserving a check upon dishonesty, they will be glad—as glad as thomfri themselves—to dp so. But-, when they canie with demands, as the representatives of tho men, he was unable .to depart froin the position which ie had taken up. The Commiisionera must be allowed to manage

'{lie affaire of-their .department! ill '.their own way. Mr. Johnston indicated that he would.be absent from Sydney for.about i fortnight; iijb l3i;okfen Hill, but in the Meantime lis. would gii-e iiietfiictions that everything possible should be done to remove the objections .which' the men had taken to the present system. "While J. absolutely decline to accede to the demand you have ma.de," ■said the Commissioner ill conclusion, " I am willing to give you thg JtssiirSnce tliafc ire Iviil <it> everything ih ollr power to obviatfe the which it has been pointed oilt exists in the system,- arid to endeavour to remove the objection taken by the irlen;"