Staff Ideas.

I would like again to impress on members of the staff my desire for an open expression of their ideas and opinions upon any of the problems with which we are grappling. On more than one occasion I have found some diffidence on the part of members of the staff to venture an opinion or to reveal a piece of knowledge due, possibly, to some feeling that if this did not happen to coincide with the beliefs of the management it might be harmful to the man advancing it. Now, I want to have that idea banished completely. The member who does not think for himself and who endeavours to mould reports or verbal statements in the hope that they may fall in with what he thinks might be the General Manager's ideas—or any other individual's ideas for that matter—can never be 100 per cent, valuable to the Department. While decision must, of course, rest with the Department, the approach to decision must be based on the best information obtainable from all sources, and if some useful information or opinion, based on sound knowledge, is withheld by anyone in a position to supply it, the problem of making right decision upon any point is made unnecessarily difficult.

General Manager.

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