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I.— B.

J. J. WALKLATE.

244. So that he can put on the necessary pressure according to the grade he is running on?— Yes. 245. In face of having the indicator the motorman could not put on too much pressure —he would know according to the grade the amount of pressure required?— The indicator shows him what pressure he has in his cylinder, and for that particular car he would know what he should have reading on his indicator to work the brakes. 246. Mr. Luke] The maximum power is in the cylinder, and the indicator shows the pressure?— Yes. 247. Mr. G. M. Thomson.] Where have your accidents chiefly been —on the steep grades or on the level? Can you tell me that?—l think 1 can say that they have not been on the steep grades. Arthur Rosser examined. (No. 7.) 1. The Chairman] What are you?— Secretary of the Electric Tramways Union. 2. How many members have you in your union?— Three hundred and twenty. 3. Has this Bill been considered by the union or the executive? —The former Bill of Mr. McGowan's has been considered, and they were in favour of it; but this Bill has not been circulated as far as Auckland. We have only seen a precis of it in the Press. 4. You are acquainted with the views of your union on this matter ?—1 have seen the Bill since I came to Wellington to-day, and they have made me acquainted with their views of that synopsis given in the papers. 5. And you wish to communicate their views?—By special request. Mr. Chairman, may I point out that there is trouble on account of the brakes in existence at the present time in Auckland. At the time that the union went back to work in 1908 from that last strike there were certain proposals made to the special Commission of which Dr. McArthur was Chairman, and two of those were ruled out of order. One was the installation of the power brakes. It was ruled by the Chairman that that did not come within the scope of the inquiry. The Minister for Public Works — I think it was the Hon. Mr. Hall-Jones at that time — immediately ordered a Royal Commission on the brakes question, so that the men should feel that the point with regard to the brakes which had been disallowed by Dr. McArthur was being dealt with by another Commission. Two of those items were the power brakes to be installed, and the glass fronts on the cars; and therefore it came within the scope of the Royal Commission to inquire into those two things. The Commission sat and took voluminous evidence, and the finding was given in August of last year, practically sixteen mouths ago, and for some time no effort was made to carry out the finding of that Commission. Sixteen months afterwards two cars are equipped with the air brake. The tests were held in June, and I wrote in my position as secretary to Mr. Walklate, the general manager of the company, asking him whether he had had any results of the tests. That was in July, and I have my letter-book here to substantiate it. The reply I got was that they were waiting for the report of the Public Works Department to see whether the brakes were satisfactory or not. I wrote to the Hon. Mr. McKenzie immediately after getting that letter, and then got word that the company were introducing seven sets of the Freund track brake. I asked Mr. Walklate, the president of the union being with me, if anything was being done, and learned that they had not even been shipped, so that the men are reasonably annoyed at the delay in carrying out the findings of the Royal Commission. I would point out that it has been testified that Auckland has the fastest service in the Dominion, but it has the most obsolete set of brakes, and that was stated by the Royal Commission. The existing brakes are not sufficiently quick or powerful in their action for use in emergency. We have a grade on the Parnell Rise of 1 in 9, College Hill I should say would be 1 in 14, and Wellesley Street 1 in 17, so that at any rate we have a grade there nearly equal to your Brooklyn grade here in Wellington. Certainly it is a straight grade, and has no turns in it; but, whereas your Wellington men have the magnetic brake, wdiich is quick in its action, our men have the handbrakes. Pressure is required to put on those brakes, and the men cannot, according to the finding of the Royal Commission, devote sufficient attention to their duties in keeping clear of the traffic on the I'oad. I want to say that I have every respect for the general manager of the company personally. I consider that he is the manager of a sj'stem worked from headquarters, and I have nothing against Mr. Walklate personally; but I would point out that the system of the company seems to be one of avoidance in carrying out its duties. In the last-but-one award, which was given in June, 1907, motormen's seats were ordered to be provided, and there were eighty cars to be fixed up. We adduced evidence that the men were suffering from varicose through long standing of nine-hour shifts, and the Arbitration Court decreed that motormen's seats should be provided. The seats consist of a hollow piece of cast-iron pipe with a thread on it, which is stuck on the floor, and a wooden disc on top. Twenty-one weeks after that, those seats were not installed, and it was only after threatening the company in writing that I would bring the matter up before the Court, which arrived in October, that there was a hustle got on and the seats were put in. 1 mention this to show that it is traditional with the company to delay. Now, in this case it is not satisfactory to the men who go with their lives in their hands each day they go on with their work. Might I point out that not only is it dangerous to the men, but it is dangerous to the travelling public. I would point out that in eight days during Fleet Week the Auckland tramways carried 1,014,000 passengers, and on the Monday of Fleet Week alone there were 147,000 carried, and an inspired notice appeared in the Herald congratulating Mr. Lysaght, the traffic inspector, for getting through this quantity of passengers without accident. The men should have got the credit considering the means they had at their disposal. Then, with that immense number of passengers carried and American coins being given, the company does not study the men's interest