After one of the hardest years the world as a whole has experienced in our times there may be some thought among the people at large that holidays and the holiday spirit should be allowed to lapse until times grow better. In this a serious mistake may be made, for holidays are among the most vital agencies to be counted upon in helping to produce that world recovery for which all look with longing. They are, in the first place, essential to bodily health. The annual vacation is a tonic that often has, for its only-and greatly inferior-alternative, a doctor's bill or a spell in hospital.

The refreshment of mind and spirit which a break from the daily grind brings is one of the factors needed to help in restoring that confidence which is everywhere regarded as the essential forerunner of better times.

To stand aside from the constant strain of business and let the rest of the world go by for a while is the best way to obtain a true perspective, to find out what are the “first things” that should be dealt with first, to see what others are doing, and to germinate new and better ideas and ideals.

Now, perhaps more than even in R. L. Stevenson's time, one would “like to rise and go where the golden apples grow”- and the place would certainly be harder to find. But to move into new surroundings and pause a while and play; to see new things-apples or elephants, bays for bathing in, geysers for gazing at, the moving stairway of the city emporium, or the mowing machine and the lowing cattle of the way-back farm or run, the matchmaker at work in the factory, or the milking machine at the sheds-is to obtain the best kind of rest, if it is not one's regular job.

So every wise doctor advises a holiday that will provide “something different” for the patient. New Zealand is singularly fortunate in its wealth of holiday places. Each of the cities has claims upon the attention of country dwellers and those who live in the other cities. The call of the sea can be answered upon safe and sandy shores at hundreds of open beaches or sheltered inlets around our well indented coasts. Inland, the call of the bush and lake and river claims campers and trampers, the trout of a thousand streams lure the angler, and pleasant country hotels or homesteads are happy holiday places for tired city dwellers.

Very complete arrangements for holiday travel by train have been made this year, as it is recognised that with the need page 6 for economy uppermost, many who would perhaps otherwise travel by private car will take advantage of the vastly cheaper transport which the railways provide for their major journeyings.

There is something about a trip by train that gives it a holiday flavour right from the shrill of the starting whistle to the groan of the final Westinghouse stop; and this touch of romance, coupled with the real convenience and comfort found on the way, makes an irresistible appeal to the great bulk of the travelling public, who this year have reason to flock in ever greater numbers to the holiday trains of the Dominion.

A Great Service

Replying to the toast of “Valediction” at the Railway Officers' Smoke Concert in Wellington, the Chairman of the Government Railways Board, Mr. H.H. Sterling, who has just resigned from the position of General Manager of Railways to take up that position, said, “Though I have ceased to be literally an ‘officer’ in the Railway service, nevertheless I find a great deal of satisfaction in looking back over my connection with that great service. I do not use the adjective ‘great’ just for the mere sake of saying it; I believe the service is a great one-great in its interests and in what it does for the Dominion.

“This railway system of ours has had a great and glorious past. I do not suppose anyone has ever attempted to controvert the dictum that the railways have made the development of this country possible and have brought it to a state of productive capacity that could not have been achieved without the railways and the service they performed. I was very fortunate in being able to see the other side of the picture. During the period I was out of the service I was at the head of the organisation which is the railway's biggest customer. In that capacity I was one who wanted service, and I am happy to say that I found the Railway Department never let us down.

“The railways have built up a tradition that is difficult to live up to in times of depression. On the one hand everyone wants something from the railways. You cannot produce transport for nothing any more than you can produce boots or anything else for nothing. If someone obtains a service for which he does not pay, someone, else has to pay for it! That is an elementary principle that has been all too often overlooked in the past; and I am not going to say that in some cases the railwaymen have not done some of their paying. I am endeavouring to say that in regard to the past a great standard of service has been set up. Difficulties, however, have ranged themselves against the railway industry. Competition has entered into it that in former days was unknown. In addition to that, anyone acquainted with the business as it is to-day knows how serious we have found the depression that is affecting the world.”

New Zealand's Transport Act

In referring to the Transport Act and its effect upon the railways, the Chairman of the Government Railways Board, Mr. H. H. Sterling, in addressing a gathering of Railway Officers, spoke inter alia as follows:-

“The fight is only just now beginning, but it is beginning in fairer circumstances than have hither to obtained. Everyone will be in the open, and it will be a fairer ‘go’ than we have had in the past. I urge you to reflect on that, and to realise that it is only by the personal service that you each and everyone of you give to the customers that come within the station precincts that the battle will be won-it is by personal service that you can help the Department and yourselves. It is by personal service that you are able to weave the bonds of goodwill between the public as customers and yourselves as those providing the service. It has been a great satisfaction to me to feel my confidence has not been misplaced. I do not say that for the sake of making a speech, but because I have solid facts to back up my belief.

“As you know, we have had to take a few reefs in our belt in recent times. I have had to make an appeal to every member of the Department to assist as it fell to the Department to effect a drastic curtailing of costs in order to do something towards rehabilitating the financial position of the Department and the country. The response has been a wonderful one. I feel I would not be doing justice to the men of this great service if I did not take this opportunity of saying what our experience has been in that connection.

“Last year our expenditure decreased by nearly half a million pounds, £476,000 as compared with the previous year. This year I think our expenditure will decrease, it shows pretty well certain to decrease, by over one million pounds. We reckon it will decrease by £1,100,000, making in two years a cut in expenditure of one and a half million pounds. Those are very creditable figures, and I say that the result could not have been achieved without the whole-hearted co-operation of the staff in the direction not only of effecting direct economies in connection with their own work, but in making very many valuable suggestions that have been heartily welcomed, and which have been duly acknowledged on every occasion. The number of cases that have come under my own personal notice of men, some of them in the humblest ranks of the service, who have written me personal letters with suggestions I have found very helpful indeed, has given me particular encouragement in the belief that railwaymen are doing their best and the job will be done with credit to themselves and to the Dominion.”

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