117

A. GBAHAii^

I.—6A.

51. What line was that on?—Christchurch South —I think between Islington and christchurch, but lam not sure. The circumstances were brought under my notice, but I could not remember all the details and give them offhand. 52. Is that the case in respect of winch the institute communicated with the Department]— Yes, the institute brought the case under the notice of the Department. 53. Is it not a fact that in that particular ease the man had actually entered a day on his pay-sheet for five minutes' work, and the institute was supporting him in that contention?—No, most decidedly not. 54. Well, what were you supporting him in connection with will you state the facts?—l cannot from memory —you will have the records in your office. 55. You are speaking of Rangiora? —No, lam not. I think there were two stations applied. Mr, Morgan: The instance referred to was at Hornsby and Islington, where the men were kept on two hours over ordinary time, and the institute's contention was that they should be paid for Sunday work. 56. Mr. McYilly.] Well, did not the institute represent the case of Rangiora in connection with this particular train/—No, not Rangiora—thai is a different matter altogether. We did not take the Rangiora Station matter up. 57. Well, the institute has never contended that where a train left a station at five minutes past 12 on Saturday night that the men should be paid for a day's work? —We only ask the same system of payment to be introduced as is in operation at the present time for Sunday duty. 58. What is the minimum Sunday pay thai the Railway Department allows its men?—l think it is four hours. 59. If a man works one hour he gets paid for four/ —Yes. lit). And if he works five hours he gets paid what?—A whole day. If a man works fourteen hours he gets only one day's pay. 61. And if he works half an hour he gets half a day s pay, and live hours a full day .' Yes, it is a very equitable arrangement so far as the Department and the men are concerned. 62. If a man worked ten hours a day and was paid overtime the cost for the year you say would be £-l(i.' —Yes, worked out on the basis I have mentioned. li-'i. If your overtime calculation is £23 for eight hours a day, then the calculation for £35 cannot be right on thai basis, because you have only got one hour and a half over.' -It is easily enough calculated. 1 may have made an error in computing the figures, but it cannot 1»- an error of any consequence, because if you take 313 days at Is. lid. a day you will get it. 64. it is the basis that you work on that 1 want to get at? —Well, Is. 6d. per hour, the difference betxveen eight hours and the time worked : that is, a man would be entitled to 3s. a day if he xvorked txvo hours overtime. 65. 3s. a day is more than £35 per annum? —You are trying to confuse me. You are quoting the amount for nine hours and a half and I am quoting ten, and you are putting the amount opposite the ten hours. 1 will read xvhat I said in my opening: "To give some idea of the cost to the Department if the daily duty xvere reduced to eight hours. 1 will take the case of an officer in receipt of a salary of less than .£2OO per annum working eight, hours per day: if he were paid overtime at the Postal scale he xvould rei - odd in the course of the year; if he worked nine hours and a half he would receive too odd; and if lie worked ten hours a day. £46 per year." That is at Is. 6d. per hour. 66. Now, you spoke about bonuses being given in outside businesses. Can you give the Committee tiny idea to what extent bonuses are paid) —Well, in a number of insurance ami banking firms, and in the Union Company, 1 am sun, bonuses are granted. 67. To what extent? —They vary. Some of them go as high as 10 per cent, on the annual salaries of the officers; but I could not give you all the details, because I did not go into that. People as a rule xvho get bonuses are not very fond of parading about the actual amount they get, but I know in some firms it goes as high as 10 per cent, on the actual salary 68. Then the amount of bonus is dependent on the amount of salary received? —It is calculated on the salary. It is not dependent on that, but on the profits of the firm, very likely. 69. Can you give the Committee some idea of the salaries of those men that you speak about receive, comparing a £20D-a-.\ear Stationmaster with a man xvho is doing the same class of work?— Well, you are taking me into private business, and I have no knoxvledge of the pay-sheets; but speaking generally as a man who knocks about a lot in the xvorld, I found out that tin- employees of the firms 1 have in my mind are paid much more liberally than the officers of the RailwayDepartment as a whole, and they'attain to a much greater salary than we could possibly attain to in the Railway service. 70. What class of business? —Well, some of the large insurance companies, and also some of the big stores, such as Wright, Stephenson, and Co., Dalgety, Nichols, and others, where the salaries go up to £8 and £9 per xveek. A man lias a chance of rising to that. 71. Do not the salaries in the Railxvay Department go up to £8 and £9 per week.' Well, if you live long enough. 72. Well, can you tell the Committee of anx instance now in which men outside can go up in twelve years automatically —that is, the ordinary rank and file, and not men of any particular brilliancy—to £200 a year? Yes. I can tell you better than that. I had an offer xvhen I was in the Railway Department a few years ago of an appointment in a mercantile film. I did not take it because I thought I was better placed where I xvas at that time, and before ten years were over the man who took the position, who xvas a personal friend of mine, was drawing £8 per xveek, and I xvas drawing equivalent to £4. 73. That xvas your misfortune in that particular case? —Yes, it xvas. 74. That is an exceptional case; but as against that hoxv many cases can you quote in xvhich men who have gone into mercantile concerns have not succeeded in getting £4 a week in ten