D—2

Now the Railways Department has all the facilities named at every point of any importance at all throughout the Dominion —it has staffed depots, vehicles with drivers, its own telephone service, its own advertising staff, ledger accounts, its own commercial agents who know where the potential traffic is and the competitive rates by different routes and services ; in short, it is in a position to canvass every possible source of traffic and provide a through service on one consignment-note and one account from and to any point in New Zealand. Furthermore, except at the points of transfer to aircraft, the traffic can be handled by the existing staff and facilities. I do not think it can be doubted that the necessary and complete coverage and ground service can be provided by the railways organization at a cost which cannot be approached by any organization existing, still less one yet to be brought into being. The cost of air transport is now and for many years will be much higher than that of ground transport, and if air cargo services are to obtain sufficient volume of traffic to operate and progress the total costs must be brought down to the absolute minimum.

STAFF A summary of the staff position and a comparison with the previous year's figures are given in the following table (the figures do not include railway employees serving in the Armed Forces) :

Note.—The figures for the year 1946 have been adjusted by excluding therefrom details respecting wharf labourers (at 31st March, 1946, 379 employees ; average throughout the year, 338 employees) who were previously, but are not now, paid by the Department. Although the total staff of the Department as at 31st March, 1947, shows an increase when compared with the previous year, the past year has continued to be marked by staffing difficulties, and, in common with other establishments, both Governmental and private, the Department has experienced an abnormally high turnover of labour. The services of a number of skilled artisans and experienced personnel from the branches associated with the operation of trains have been lost, and because of the general manpower shortage it lias not been possible to strengthen the staff, particularly in the traffic and locomotive operating branches, as much as was hoped. For these reasons great difficulty has been found both in regulating the hours of duty of these employees and providing for their annual holidays. For present requirements it is estimated that to bring up to full strength the staff engaged directly in the running of trains and the handling of traffic an additional 1,328 employees are needed —1,000 employees in the Traffic Branch (200 of whom are office staff) and 328 in the Locomotive Running Branch. The staff shortage has also been keenly felt in the Department's workshops, where vacancies total 662 for tradesmen and 604 for semi-skilled and unskilled workers. The past year saw the return to railway duty of the large majority of those of the Department's employees who as at 31st March, 1946, were serving with the Armed

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— 1947. | | 1946. 1 Variation, 1947 with 1946. Total staff as at 31st March— Permanent Temporary 16,342 9,695 15,786 9,430 +556 +265 Totals 26,037 25,216 +821 Average staff throughout the year 26,077 23,991 +2,086