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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 5, Issue 5 (September 1, 1930)

Value of Machinery

Value of Machinery.

There is, in some quarters, a distinct aversion to the introduction of machinery as a labour-saving device. This is unfortunate, because, taken to its logical conclusion, there would be no work at all page 46 if we reverted to the simple system of using nothing but hands as a basis for labour and exchange of commodities.

There is another point, too, which a worker made during my investigations. In discussing “best methods” he stated that it took away the chance of being an individual, the craftsmanship outlook was lost because everything worked to a plan upon highly organised lines. The very fact that the assembly shop lays down
Snapped on Station Platform. An enginedriver and his mate proceeding to “take over” at Auckland.

Snapped on Station Platform.
An enginedriver and his mate proceeding to “take over” at Auckland.

very carefully arranged methods does not mean the individual worker becomes an automaton. What it does mean is that the factors which enter into the job have been standardised for him, thus putting outside the sphere of choice the movements, etc., he may make.

The early, unorganised system is a method of work with its own set of laws equally with that of the new order. No matter what is done it conforms to some law or another, but not necessarily the best law. The fundamental principle in any “best method” is the utilisation of natural law to the fullest extent. No man training for sport is content to train anyhow, he is always out to use science as his ablest assistant. A university student gets up his subject upon scientific lines, his knowledge and practical work is not taken in any indiscriminate order, but in definite progression.