Hillside Workshops.

Not only arc the workshops at Hillside quite inadequate for the work which ought to be done in them, but their construction and distribution are such as to render them less useful than buildings of their size might have been. Neither the wagon and carriage repairing shop nor the paint shop have any windows in their roofs, and when they are at all crowded, as is now always the case, the want of sufficient light is badly felt.

1. The machine (or erecting) shop, and the smiths' shop are attached to one another, and the engine attached to the former drives the blast-fan for the blacksmiths' hearth, and the machinery in both shops. The erecting and repair of engines is not carried on in an attached building as at Christchurch, but one repairing pit runs through the centre of the workshop. This pit is capable of accommodating 2 of the double Fairlie engines, or 3 of the ordinary tank engines, but is very inconvenient when used for more than one at a time as it can only be entered from one end.

The two last named ought to be in the wagon shop, but as there is no power in connection with that workshop to drive them it is necessary to bring all the wood work requiring to be executed by machinery to the machine shop.

2. The blacksmiths' shop contains only five forges. Four additional ones have just been erected in a shed adjoining, two of which are ready for use. A punching and shearing machine stands here. This was brought from the graving dock in exchange for one of unsuitably large dimensions originally imported for these workshops.

3. The wagon repairing shop contains no plant except a dozen ordinary carpenters' benches. It is impossible to carry on current work in this building, as, on the average, only 5 or 6 hands can advantageously work inside. Hence a great deal has to be done out of doors, when the weather is sufficiently favourable; from 28 to 30 wagons and carriages are sent here weekly for repair.

4. From its dimensions and darkness the paint shop may be spoken of as nearly useless. Nearly all tins class of work is done outside. Under these circumstances, when the weather is bad, the rolling stock sent for repair, or newly erected, is often kept idle for many days.

This establishment gives employment to the following numbers:—

Wagon repairing shop,	38 men.
Paint shop,	20 men.
Machine shop,	22 men.
Blacksmiths' shop,	16 men.
	Say together 96 men,

of whom 10 have been taken on in the wagon shop only last week, and some half dozen in the paint shop, are in excess of the average. The four new forges should be at work this week, and the necessary complement of hands to work them will be taken on. There are five men employed at the Railway Station, in the tarpaulin page 29 repairing shop; and at the Graving Dock, 4 smiths, 4 strikers, 3 fitters, 2 machine men, 1 apprentice, and 1 engineman, are almost exclusively employed upon Railway work, but they belong to the Dock establishment, and their work is charged to the department as if done in a private establishment.