Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 6, Issue 1 (May 1, 1931)

General Manager's Message

page break

General Manager's Message

On the occasion of far-reaching changes in the policy of administration applied to the railways of this country, I wish to give expression to one or two thoughts which, as General Manager of the system, have been passing through my mind.

The first is in regard to the usefulness of the railways to the people of this Dominion. I have a belief and faith in regard to this that has never wavered. Whatever developments there may be by road or air or sea in the future, I believe that for a long time to come the railways will be an essential factor in meeting the transport needs of the Dominion and so long as the railways continie to give that essential service at the lowest possible cost they will be “paying” in the only sense in which that word can be rationally applied to the work of the railway staff. This thought has stayed with me throughout the orgy of transport which has afflicted the country with such intensity in recent years and I feel that it is being increasingly recognised throughout the community. Many factors have contributed to this recognition, chief among which I believe are the growth of a more judicial attitude among the thinkers in the community towards the transport industry and the place of the railways therein and the steady levelling down of costs which has operated in the Department during the past year. During the present year I think we may look with confidence to further beneficial results under both these headings.

The second is in regard to the effectiveness of the railways on the personnel side. Upon this point I have been especially pleased to find the extent of public appreciation in regard to the willingness of our staff to afford helpful assistance to the public in their business with the Department. From one end of the Dominion to the other, business people engaged in an extremely varied range and scale of producing, manufacturing and trading occupations and enterprises, have gone out of their way to keep me personally informed of incidents in connection with their own businesses which have shewn the attitude of employees of the Department towards the Department's clients in a very favourable light.

This has been encouraging as shewing, first, the appreciation of members of the staff of the public viewpoint, for no matter how well-informed the customers of the Department may be upon the general features of our services with which they come into direct touch, there is always some further knowledge which members specially engaged in the various types of railway work possess, and it is in transmitting this knowledge that so much real aid can be given to those who entrust their transport needs to our care.

Then a second advantage from such service is revealed in the sidelight thereby thrown on the attitude of members towards their employment, for nothing indicates more clearly a healthy attitude towards their job than when the members of an organisation govern their actions in regard to those with whom they come in contact as they would do were the business their own.

As I write this message the change in the control of the Railways, as embodied in the Government Railways Amendment Act, 1931, comes into operation. An essential feature of that change is the constitution of the Government Railways Board to control the working of the railways and to shape their policy. I feel that the traditional loyalty of the railway staff to the constitution will be maintained through the present change and that I may speak with confidence for every member of the staff in giving to the Board and the public the full assurance that every member of the staff will co-operate with the Board and with one another with the single purpose of obtaining the very best results in the working of the system.

General Manager.

page break
“Graven not on Stone, but in the hearts of Men.”—Pericles. (Rly. Publicity photos.) Scenes at the Cenotaph, Wellington, on Anzac Day (25th April), 1931. (1) The Governor-Generl, Lord Bledisloe, inspecting the Guard of Honour; (2) Lord Bledisloe placing his wreth on the Cenotaph; (3) Lord Bledisloe and the President of the Returned Soldiers’ Association, Lieut.-Colonel H. E. Avery, D.S.O., with wreaths for the Cenotaph; (4) Wellington's fine War Memoril; (5) the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes, before the Cenotaph; (6) the Memorial Service in progress; (7) a general view of the gathering during the Memorial Service.

“Graven not on Stone, but in the hearts of Men.”—Pericles.
(Rly. Publicity photos.)
Scenes at the Cenotaph, Wellington, on Anzac Day (25th April), 1931. (1) The Governor-Generl, Lord Bledisloe, inspecting the Guard of Honour; (2) Lord Bledisloe placing his wreth on the Cenotaph; (3) Lord Bledisloe and the President of the Returned Soldiers’ Association, Lieut.-Colonel H. E. Avery, D.S.O., with wreaths for the Cenotaph; (4) Wellington's fine War Memoril; (5) the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes, before the Cenotaph; (6) the Memorial Service in progress; (7) a general view of the gathering during the Memorial Service.