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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 5, Issue 4 (August 1, 1930)

No Time For Pessimism — General Manager'S Hopeful Review Of Railways Position

page 18

No Time For Pessimism
General Manager'S Hopeful Review Of Railways Position.

Frankness was a feature of the speech made at the Railway Officers’ Institute Reunion on Saturday, July 19th, by the General Manager of Railways (Mr. H. H. Sterling). Appreciating the warm expression of confidence by the Institute, he declared that in effect officers would only get out of the service in wages and conditions what they put into it in efficiency and loyalty to their organisation, the only means to give the public the service it required at the least possible cost.

“If We Stand Together We Will Win.”

Proposing the toast of “The Minister and Management,” Mr. J. J. McAloon said that though Mr. Veitch had risen to Ministerial rank from the Department, in bad times, his training as a railwayman would help him to see things from the railway point of view. He hoped that the railways would bring prosperity to the country. In their General Manager, born and bred in New Zealand, they had one who understood. The railways were not built to be a paying concern, but to tap the wealth in which the country abounded. They had helped in the past to make the country's wealth available to its inhabitants, but that was lost sight of largely to-day.

Management Appreciated.

Relationship during the year between management and officers had been of the most cordial nature, said Mr. McAloon. Naturally the Institute expressed the views of the men, and the management those of the Department, but whenever Mr. Sterling had had to express the views of the Department, it had always been with a just voice. They were passing through financial stringency not peculiar to New Zealand, but they had every faith and confidence in the policy their General Manager had framed.

A Hard Year.

Mr. Sterling said he appreciated the kind references to the relationships during the year, which had not been an easy one so far as those relationships were concerned. He wished to acknowledge the courtesy and restraint of the representatives of the Institute in putting their remits before him. Their joint task might be difficult, but so long as the conditions were not made unpleasant there remained only a residuum of thought and work which would never gall the men, who, under pleasant conditions, would never worry while the relationships described by Mr. McAloon existed.

Pessimism Scouted.

“During the year we have had difficult times,” said Mr. Sterling. “It has grown progressively difficult, until now we are in as difficult a situation as we have ever had to face, but I decline to take a pessimistic view of it. Indeed, I think we are on the eve of big things. I do not think that at any time we have been more valuable than we are to-day. The railways are doing a service to this country which it cannot do without for many years to come. While we are giving this service, with the will to serve, and while we are giving it at the least possible cost to the country, with the greatest degree of civility—not servility—I do not blush when I face any section of the community of this Dominion.

Misjudged.

“I have found during the last few years, especially since the conditions of transport page 19 have become so much disturbed, that there has arisen a grave confusion of thought. We have been much misjudged. A great deal is overlooked and not known about our organisation. As long as the public know what we are doing, I believe we are going to get that credit and honour which is our due. I have attempted, during the past two years, to bring the public of New Zealand to that degree of understanding that will bring it to the condition I have described. I have also appealed to the railway organisation, and I think I have been generally supported. I think the work we have done is about to bear fruit, and the clouds are going to roll away, and that we are going to receive the due we may so justly claim.

Serving the Country.

“We have a great organisation, and if we stand together we will win. That is the keynote of what I have to say to you. If, from the General Manager downwards we are loyal to ourselves and our industrial organisation, nobody in this country can tell us what we ought to do, because our combined knowledge should be enough to bring to the people of the country something that cannot be brought in any other way. (Applause.) I do not know what else the people of the Dominion can ask for. I have endeavoured to impress on my men that when a problem arises that must be settled they must settle it as their brains guide them. If there is an error of judgment, nothing is coming to you.

Vital Outposts.

“It is a day that demands courage and initiative, one where those in the outposts of the Department must be relied on more and more to protect its interests over its far-flung territory. Broad lines of policy must be set down by a central authority, but when all is said and done, whether we get, or do not get, the business—and that is what it all comes to—it is by the increased ability, courage and initiative of those in the outposts who are charged with the duty of looking after your interests that we shall win.

The Wage Fixing Factor.

“We are a unit in the economic structure of this country, and according as we are loyal to that organisation, we are going to achieve great ends. We do not always see eye to eye. That is inevitable, but we are all striving towards ideals, without which a man is lost. I believe that in our ideals we have something that will carry us forward to a higher value to the community, and it is that which determines in the end what you will get in the way of wages and conditions.

Cut Out Waste.

“That brings me to the question of waste. Waste and wages come from the same fund, and that fund is circumscribed by the value of our product to the people. See that nobody is out of a job, and that material is properly handled. Thus we shall achieve what we hope to achieve, giving the service the public require us to give at the least possible cost. When we have done that we have done everything that can be expected of us.”

Renewing an Old Acquaintance. (Rly. Publicity photo.) The Hon. W. A. Veitch, Minister of Railways (and former locomotive driver) again tries his veteran hand at the the throttle-valve.

Renewing an Old Acquaintance.
(Rly. Publicity photo.)
The Hon. W. A. Veitch, Minister of Railways (and former locomotive driver) again tries his veteran hand at the the throttle-valve.