ADDINGTON WORKSHOPS ENQUIRY.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume L, Issue 12243, 17 June 1909, Page 5

ADDINGTON WORKSHOPS ENQUIRY.

REPORT OF THE

COMMISSION

(Per Press Association.)

. WELLINGTON,. June'l6. The report of the Board .of Enquiry on tlie Addington AVorkshops was laid on the table of the House to-day.. Summing up the results of their inquiry the Board were of opinion that the work at Addington was. not being done as expeditiously and economically as it might, be. This applied especially to the smiths' shopj hoilet shop, machine shop, erecting shop, car and wagon' shop, and foundry;.that the plant and appliances, with the exception of power, arrangements, were suitable for the carrying on of repair work,' but that considerable additions were re. quired before they could be classed as efficient for manufacturing purposes. : The motive power arrangements were wasteful in the extreme. The presence ] of many independent overworked boilers and non-condensing steam engines, together with faulty .belt transmission, fully accounted . for the enormous fuel consumption of 3700 tons per annum for power purposes alone. The Board recommended the abolition of the existing arrangements and the establishment of a central producer gas electric power generating station with electric transmission to the different shops.. Nearly £3500 per annum could be" saved approximately in actual working expenses, by such a change.^ The Board declared^ that the system of work was faulty' in the association of repair with new M'ork, the methods Of dealing with and carrying on the manufacture of new work; the system of cost keeping and the tool sytern;. that the discipline maintained under tlfe present conditions was creditable to both officers and workmen, for the Board believed that the existing system of-classification and control was calculated to dishearten the better class of officers and men and,/to give an undesirable security of tenure to inefficient units; that the cost of prodxiction was, speaking generally, greater at Adding-, ton than'at private and other Government workshops. Dealing with the sup.' ply of locomotives, the fact that Price Bros, can supply A Class locomotives at £73 16s 4d' per ton would Appear to justify the manufacture of these. engines iii-Uio Dominion, for it is probable that similar niauliiues c«>-.\M not be imported from England and placed on the rails here for less than £70 per ton. ' The cost of a local engine would be only 54 per cent, in excess of imported one. If the Department deters, mines to continue the manufacture .of locomotives, the Board considers thatr^(l) Either the additionaljappliances enumerated should be installed at Adding.: ton, ■in the new manufacturing shop sections . distinct from '•' the*" repair section> or (2) an independent general rail-, way. manufacturing shop should be.set.: up in a suitable lobafity.' Failing ojie^ of these courses of action, contracts should in future bei let to private firmsfor; all locomotives' required.' : ■