The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 13, Issue 3 (June 1, 1938.)

The Human Touch

The Human Touch.

Whenever I see a guard punching a ticket my mind will turn for a moment to the ticket-sorting section of the Accountancy Branch. Tickets from all lines of the North Island come into that room, but they are not fed into machines. They go into the hands of girls who show a skill which any professional. pitch-and-tosser might, envy. Each girl faces rows of boxes, each about six inches by six inches, bearing the names of stations. Flick! A ticket flies into a box as smartly and as surely as if it had been fixed to it with a strand of rubber, stretched out and released by the girl. Well, one feels rather ashamed to confess it, but one was more astonished by this nimble cleverness of fingers than by the magic of machines. I was invited to fossick in a box for a ticket that might have gone astray, but the search failed. It reminded me of a cry which I used to hear as a boy at A. & P. Shows, “every time a coconut.” Well, well, I can declare solemnly and truly that I have never been as clever in any of my tasks as those girls were in theirs.

This sorting makes the final check on tickets for auditing.

A section of the big Machine Room.

A section of the big Machine Room.

A Well-equipped Workshop.

When Mr. Bishop was speaking to the visiting accountants he praised the skill of Mr. F. B. Freed, officer in charge of the machines, who—he declared—would not allow a machine to wear out. The modern workshop gives new life to many things, ranging from stop-watches to slot-machines, as well as the accounting machines. Mr. Freed is more than an ingenious repairer; he is a successful inventor. One of his products is the dating press used at railway stations and elsewhere.

At present, when the “hospital” duties allow him time to think about other things, he turns to another innovation, a machine which will give correct change, but will conserve the small coins, as far as practicable. Existing types of money-changers, such as those in the Telegraph Offices, lack that conservative touch.

Architect's drawings of the new station at Christchurch.

Architect's drawings of the new station at Christchurch.