The above is the title of a two-colour folder (with striking cover design) now being sent out by the General Manager to all members of the New Zealand Railway service.

Those homely proverbs “Waste not, want not” and “Wilful waste makes woeful want,” demand everybody's best attention in these days of stress. Stoppage of waste makes for security of employment and family welfare.

Waste is always a hindrance to individual and national welfare, but under present conditions it is a deadly enemy against which the most determined war must be waged. Waste does no one any good and gives no worthy person any pleasure. Stopping waste has the same effect as getting more business, and it has the advantage that it costs nothing except thought and care, and can be practised successfully at times when new business is hard to get and possibly expensive to handle.

In this personal message to each member of the railway staff I desire to enlist the interest and help of each individual among our 17,500 members in a campaign for the elimination of waste and for studied economy in the use of all kinds of stores and supplies. It should be obvious to all that the instinct of self-preservation must command their active support of this principle.

Launched, as we are, on a much more real business basis than ever before, self-interest and self-help are very definitely involved for all in a drive for waste-elimination within the Department. More than ever before will we be judged by results, and as Departmental earnings have to pay for the cost of materials and supplies wasted as well as the cost of materials and supplies used, before salaries or wages can be met or properly apportioned, the ultimate effect of waste in all its forms on rates of remuneration for personal services is a very vital factor.

An active attitude against waste gives the pleasant sense of work well done. This constant carefulness, day by day, increases individual efficiency. The multiplication of these personal efficiencies assures the future of the railways.

General Manager.

Head Office,

Railways,

Wellington,

15th July, 1931.

If the cost of careless waste in an individual case automatically reduced wages by the amount wasted, this truth would become impressively clear.

When you think of waste, think in terms of the multiplication table. An average waste of only a penny a day for each employee of the Railways would amount to £22,000 a year.

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Some Instances.

Water. A leaking tap, dripping at the rate of a pint a minute, wastes 5,000 gallons in a four-weekly period, or 65,000 gallons in a year. Effort to turn off a tap costs nothing, and if a tap is defective it costs nothing to report the matter. If there is an average of only one such leaking tap at each of 300 stations, workshops, good-sheds, or other railway centres, then the waste from this cause alone is 19,500,000 gallons. Much water in New Zealand is sold at 1s. per 1,000 gallons (in some places it costs more), so that, on this basis and at the rate mentioned, leakage of water throughout the system may cause water waste to the value of £1,000 per annum.

But 300 penny washers to stop such waste costs only 25s.

Electric Light. The cost of electricity used in a 100–watt light in Wellington is one-third of a penny per hour. One of the large flood lights in shunting-yards costs 4 1/2d. per hour.

Heating. A one-kilowatt electric heater, or a six-element gas heater, costs from 2d. to 3d. per hour. A gas-ring costs 2 1/2 per hour.

The above are approximate costs, and I quote them to show the money value, in relation to time, of some of those things which are liable to misuse through want of care or neglect to check.

The total number of electric bulbs and gas-heating and lighting-elements employed throughout New Zealand railways approximates 25,000.

An average of one hour's waste per day for each of them, or the cutting down of their use by one hour per day, would mean, at the low average of 1/2d. per hour, 6s. 3d. for each per year, or a Dominion total for the Department of £15,000 in the whole bill of costs. This excludes the additional cost for replacement of bulbs because of unnecessary use.

During the year ended 31st March, 1931, the Department spent the following sums:—

This is equivalent to 48 per cent, of the total wages bill.

In the use and conservation of stores of all kinds watchfulness and initiative should make a substantial decrease in the total cost.

Even a 1 per cent, saving on the use of supplies means £23,000 per annum.

In addition to stopping waste of stores and supplies, every wage-earner can do something appreciable towards economy in preventing breakages, pilferage, and the damage to goods.

Finally, in making this appeal, I would point out that it is not a matter of pleasing the management that comes into question—every employee is a manager within the province of his own job—but that it is a matter of vital personal moment to each at this critical stage in the Department's development.

The less the waste the stronger becomes the financial position of the railways and the better become the prospects of employees.

No doubt comparatively few workers would be guilty of deliberate waste; but, whatever may be the cause, waste is still waste, checking the recovery of prosperity.