The Waipa Post. Published on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. THURSDAY, JANUARY 8, 1925. RAILWAY MANAGEMENT.

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1593, 8 January 1925, Page 4

The Waipa Post. Published on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. THURSDAY, JANUARY 8, 1925. RAILWAY MANAGEMENT.

IN some very interesting editorial comment on the Railway Commission's report, the Dunedin Evening Star points out that the rank and file are the keenest critics of the management over them. If it is inefficient, without promise of remedy, the output is deleteriously affected, and the lowered standard comes to be accepted as quite sufficient, as not to be exceeded without kicking. A billet under such circumstances, especially when it is Government employ, seems to attract a certain type; and while there are among the workshop hands many admirably loyal and conscientious employees, there can hardly in the circumstances escape being an admixture of those only too ready to take advantage of their environment; and in these latter the political agitator appears to find suitable material for the inculcation of a doctrine in which work for work's sake is not an outstanding principle. There 'is criticism of many points of the administration, from the staff, and it is noteworthy that while on a recent tour we heard almost identical comments from a stationmaster in the Far North, a guard on the Main Trunk line, and a long service employee at the railway workshops. The comment was to the effect that the trains used on the principal lines, particularly during the recent holidays, comprised too many coaches for safety. They expressed their fears in no uncertain tones, and it is to be presumed that the opinions from three sections of the railway service are indicative of the opinion prevailing among a majority of the railwaymen. It may be that a big disaster will have to occur before a change of policy will be adopted. It stands to reason that there would be much greater difficulty in pulling up a long, heavy train travelling, at high speed comparatively than in the case of a train comprising about ten carriages. Some of the trains that have passed through Te Awamutu, bound southward, have been very long, and passengers say that the. carriages have swayed in a most disconcerting manner. . There is another matter in the Commission's report that will be contentious. Opposition is sure to arise to the suggestion to have but two railway workshops for the whole Dominion, and rightly, too. Conditions here do not lend themselves to this centralisation, however excellent such policy may be in theory with railways generally. Not less facilities but more must be agitated for. To send locomotives ly an absurd policy. Moreover, such 350 miles away for repairs is obviouspolicy would tend to make large towns bigger, and small towns smaller, a state of affairs the Dominion must avoid if it is to escape the wretched example Australia has given to the Empire. Part of the secret of New Zealand's national solidarity and prosperity is in the encouragement given to a series of convenient sized townships all over the country, rather than have two or three unwieldy cities, with all their attendant horrors, and the remainder of the land semi-deserted. The objections to the fewer railway workshops apply to the suggested lessening of district traffic managers.