I.—Gα

III

That officers receive payment for duties performed in connection with matters coming under headings (a) and (b), and also for alterations and repairs to running-track and signallingapparatus when such work is authorized by the General Manager, but they do not receive .payment for the performance by them on Sunday of any other duties. 15. That officers are required from time to time to work overtime, and that no provision is made under the regulations for remunerating them, nor do they receive any remuneration for such overtime. (See Schedule F—Comparison of allowances for overtime and Sunday duty of officers in the Post and Telegraph Department and Railway Department.) 16. That Regulation 47 provides that when members are transferred to meet the exigencies of the Department the maximum period for which personal expenses shall be allowed to married members and their families shall be —(a) Two days at the commencement of the journey; (b) one week after arrival at destination. It is also provided that the General Manager may at his discretion reduce this time as circumstances permit, but no provision whatever is made for increasing the time. That these allowances are insufficient by reason of the fact that in many instances it is impossible to make the necessary arrangements for removal within two days, and it is equally impossible to obtain suitable house accommodation within a week after arrival at destination, consequently officers often incur considerable expense which they are obliged to bear themselves. 17. That Regulation 48 provides that when members are transferred by way of punishment they shall pay their own transfer expenses, and shall not be paid for the time they are travelling. Under this regulation a member may suffer monetary loss as follows : (a) deduction in salary. from £5 to £55 per annum; (b) loss of pay through suspension; (c) loss of salary during transfer; (d) loss of expenses incurred in connection with the transfer of family and effects; (c) reduction in value of superannuation retiring-allowance. Your petitioner submits that this regulation is a most arbitrary one so far as it relates to members transferred by way of punishment. 18. That it is understood that a Bill amending the Act is to be brought down this session containing the following clause—namely, " The Governor in Council may from time to time, on the recommendation of the Minister, fix the amount of salary to be paid to an officer tit any sum within the maximum and minimum limits of the class or gre.de in which such officer is placed, and such amount shall be the salary payable to that officer, or in respect of the office which he holds, without annual increment." That a similar clause was inserted in the Government Railways Amendment Bill (No. 2), 1910, as originally introduced, and was objected to by the members of the institute on the grounds that it gave the management power by Order in Council to fix the salaries payable to officers at an}' rate between the maximum and minimum of any grade without such officers obtaining the usual annual increment provided for by the Act. and without their having the right to appeal under section 60 of the Act. That subclause (b) of clause 3 of section 49 of the Act provides thai with respect to every member, the right to receive any increase of pay in any year shall in each case depend upon the efficiency and good conduct of the member to whose pay such increase is attached in the Third Schedule thereto, and no such increase shall be payable unless the permanent head of the Department certifies in writing that such member is entitled thereto. Your petitioner submits that the Department has under this provision ample power to withhold increments from those officers whose work or conduct is unsatisfactory, and that if such a clause as was included in the- amending Act of last session were to become law a distinct breach of faith would be committed by the Department with those officers who joined the service either prior to or under the Act. 19. That under section 57 of the Act an Appeal Board is thereby constituted for the North Island and South Island respectively, consisting of the persons therein mentioned,-and it? is further provided by clause (a) of section 64 of the Act that every decision of the Appeal Board shall he submitted to the Minister, and that no such decision shall take effeel unless and until he signifies his approval thereof. Your petitioner submits that if the Appeal Board were properly constituted there should be no reason why its decisions should not be final ami conclusive, as in the case of a decision given by the Appeal Board constituted under the Tramways Amendment Act, 1910, on appeals by tramway employees. Your petitioner therefore humbly prays your honourable House,— (a.) That the Act shall be so amended that it shall be clearly stated therein that in all cases where the traffic is maintained vacancies occurring in the service shall be filled by officers in similar grades to those of the officers whose positions they are required to fill. (h.) That the positions in the Railway service which have been reduced in status during the last few years shall be restored, and that the Act shall be amended so as to provide that Railway officers shall not be less efficiently remunerated than officers of the Post and Telegraph Department. (C.) That the travelling-allowances payable to Railway officers shall not be less than the travelling-allowances payable to officers of the Post and Telegraph Department. [</.) That Railway officers shall receive the same annual leave as officers in the Post and Telegraph Department, and that sick-leave shall not lie deducted from annual leave; or. in the alternative, that Railway officers shall receive the same annual leave, the same sick-leave, and the same payment for overtime as officers in the Post and Telegraph Department. (c.) That Railway officers shall be paid for all work performed by them on Sundays at the same rates as those paid to the officers in the Post and Telegraph Department. (/.) That the Railway Department shall pay all out-of-pocket expenses of officers transferred to meet the exigencies of the Department, and also of officers transferred by way of punishment.