i

77

I.—6a.

B. W. JICVILLY.

want, and if he continues to set up a too-loxv or too-high standard, all you can do with him is to take up each case as it occurs. If according to his high standard a man is passed over, and that man iias been previously recommended, we take that up and see that nothing unfair is done in that way. John Goodlet McPherson further examined. (No. 17.) 1. The Chairman.] What are you?—Stationmaster at Woodlands. 2. You xvish to make a statement in regard to clause 11 of the petition ( —Yes. Clause 1J read as follows: "That the travelling-allowances payable under the regulations of the Act to relieving officers in grades 7, 8, 9, 10, being officers in receipt of maximum salaries of £300, £255, £220, and £200 per annum respectively, are, in the opinion of the members of the institute, insufficient to compensate relieving officers, and that if such allowances be compared with the travelling-allowances to officers of the Post and Telegraph Department in corresponding positions it will be found that the travelling-allowances are on a higher scale in the case of the lost and Telegraph Department than in the case of the Railways, as will be manifest from Schedule D attached to this petition." In the first place, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, 1 will put before you the travelling-allowances paid to the Post and Telegraph officials: (1) While actually travelling on shore, 10s. per day; (2) while relieving, 7s. fid. per day; (3) while at sea —first day 55., each subsequent day 2s. 6d. Now, gentlemen, compare that scale with the Railways, which is as follows : (1) When the period at any place does not exceed seven days, 10s. per day for first three days, each subsequent day 65.; (2) xvhen period at any place exceeds seven days, the allowance per day for the whole tune is 6s. per day; (3) xvhile at sea —first day 55., each subsequent day 2s. fid. Railway relieving officers are ahnust invariably engaged at one station for from fourteen to twenty days at a time, and the allowance paid is therefore 6s. per day, as against 7s. 6d. per day paid by the Post and Telegraph Department. Now, gentlemen, I should like to put this In-fore you in it plain businesslike manner, and to appeal to your commercial training and to your own experience in travelling throughout our Dominion. For instance, lam a Railway officer, we will say for example, in receipt of £200, and I go to the same town as a Post Office official who is in die same grade -that is, £200. We take up our respective duties, and you will find that we are staying at the same hotel. The Railway man, 1 take it, is not going to stay at a common hash-house id a difference of Is. fid. per day, and if he does stay there, what is the result? Do the people xvith whom tie has to come in contact esteem and respect him? Do the public look up to him as they do to a Postal officer? Then, again, 1 would draw another comparison. A man in the next grade, which is £220, or right up to the £300 grade, may be relieving, and the man in the Post and Telegraph Department who is receiving £200 as against the Railway man's £300 is getting more allowance than the Railway man. Consequently the public look on that Post and Telegraph man as superior to our officer at £300 on those expenses. Then, gentlemen, for the relieving officer travelling round, the hours on the railways are so irregular that it, cannot be expected that we can stay at any town in the Dominion and not have to pay extras, which the Post and Telegraph man, who works more regular hours, does not have to pay for. For instance, the Railway man has to be out earlier in the morning; he has to make special arrangements in many cases to obtain his meals, and you know that you do not get that for nothing. The cost of living enters largely into this matter. Why, if previous to the regulations gazetted on the 19th May, 1910, the Railxvay man was entitled to the same allowance, should he not be entitled to the same or more to-day? Compare the tariff for lodging then and now, and what do we find? We find that the question of the cost of living has become so serious that the Government of the day, it is understood, are going to set up a Royal Commission to inquire into the matter. Is not that proof that the cost of living has increased ( And surely on that principle these expenses must be fixed. I think that is proof positive that we are paid too low in the matter of travelling-expenses. A good deal has been said about what the institute does in connection xvith one thing and anol but if the Railxvay Department followed the practice of the institute in this matter they would pay us the same as we are being paid when away attending to the business of the institute. Members of the Committee may be inclined to think that this is a small matter, but it is not so with us. If we are to have men who are to represent the Department properly both efficiently and socially, and whom the public are to look up to, then you must pay them a proper relieving alloxvance. It has been asserted that the position of relieving officer on the Railways is eagerlx sought after and reluctantly relinquished, but I know that in a great many cases that is not so. I have been told on many occasions that the men would not have taken the position but for the fact that they thought it might result in ultimate promotion, because the relieving officer must of necessity become a more efficient officer. He goes to so many stations and attends to the various duties from A to Z, and therefore obtains a wider experience and more knowledge of the requirements of the Department than the man xvho is kept in the one position. I do not think I have anything more to say on the question of relieving officers' expenses. 3. Mr. Ramsay.] I think some years ago the usual annual leave period was eighteen days? — No, sixteen days. 4. So that an officer in the Post and Telegraph Department relieving an officer would get sixteen days at 7s. 6d., and as regards the Railxvay man there would be sixteen days at 6s.?— That is so. The amount received by the Postal officer would be £6, and the amount received by the Railway man £5 Bs. 5. Including the two Sundays?— Yes, that is so. 6. You have no reason to suggest that the Railway man can obtain board at a cheaper rate than the Post and Telegraph man? —No. 7. /zora. Mr. Millar.] What is the object of giving the travelling-allowance at all? The object, I presume, is to compensate the man for the additional expense he is put to. 8. Is he supposed to make money out of it? —No, sir. 9. How many officers live in the Railxvay officer's house during his absence when relieving? I have never yet inhabitated any of the Railway houses. I have always gone to the best accom-modation-house or hotel, and have paid up to Bs. or 10s. a day.