Members of the Wellington branch of the New Zealand Railway Officers' Institute farewelled the late General Manager, Mr. H. H. Sterling, at their annual smoke concert on Saturday, December 5th, and tendered a welcome to Mr. P. G. Roussell, the newly-appointed General Manager.

The gathering was excellently attended. Mr. M. J. Forde, Chairman of the Branch, presided, and seated on either side of him were Mr. Sterling and Professor B. E. Murphy. Also seated at the chairman's table were Mr. P. G. Roussell, Mr. G. H. Mackley, Asst. General Manager, Mr. E. Casey, Chief Engineer, Mr. V. J. R. Stanley, President of the N.Z.R.O.I., and Mr. R. W. McVilly, ex-General Manager of Railways.

The toast of the Executive of the Institute was proposed by Mr. E. Casey, and replied to by the President, Mr. Stanley. Mr. Stanley also proposed the toast “Valediction to Mr. H. H. Sterling.” “The Management” was proposed by Professor Murphy, and replied to by Mr. P. G. Roussell. Mr. R. R. Gow proposed “Past Officers and Superannuated Members of the N.Z.R.O.I.” which was replied to by Mr. R. W. McVilly.

Replying to the toast of the Management, Mr. P. G. Roussell, General Manager, spoke as follows:—

“On behalf of the Management I desire to say how much I appreciate the way in which the toast has been honoured. I am sure Mr. Mackley will be, with me, very pleased at the many expressions of goodwill and congratulations and offers of co-operation which we have received from the various Societies and individual members.

“Speaking personally, I am under no illusion as regards the importance of the position I am taking up and I feel that to make a success of it I will have to have the co-operation and loyalty of every member of the service—and I feel I am going to get it.

“I may say that the management has been faced with a difficult task these last two years. In 1929 we had the record traffic that has ever been handled in the Dominion. A few months later we were faced with the fact of a world-wide depression that hit us, with every transport concern, very heavily. About June, 1930, we recognised we were faced with the probability of a deficit of at least three-quarters of a million pounds in our revenue, and naturally we had to make very strenuous efforts to counteract that fall in revenue by a heavy curtailment in expenditure. That fall in revenue actually did occur, but fortunately with the keen work and loyal support of the whole service we were able to cut our expenditure by slightly under half a million pounds.

“The position since the commencement of the present financial year in April last has become increasingly difficult and we have been faced with a falling revenue of £100,000 per period, and we have had to make still more desperate efforts to try to counteract that decrease in revenue by a corresponding decrease in expenditure. We have actually been able to attain that object. It has been a very unpleasant and arduous duty—necessarily a big decrease in expenditure of that nature is attended with a good deal of hardship, and I think the members of this Institute would be very reassured if they knew to what extent the management has tried to minimise the individual hardship in the service. Mr. Stanley mentioned Mr. Sterling's very sympathetic consideration of individual cases of hardship. In my position, close to Mr. Sterling, I probably know more about it even than Mr. Stanley, more about the very anxious time Mr. Sterling has had in trying to minimise the effect on individual members of the shock the Department as a whole has had to absorb. We are not out of the wood yet by any means; the position is not a bit reassuring. I do not want to strike a pessimistic note, but our revenue is still falling, and it calls for further efforts on our part to page 54 try and counteract this fall in revenue by a corresponding decrease in expenditure. I feel sure that the staff as a whole will assist the management as much as possible and to the fullest extent, to enable us to get the expenditure within the revenue and to leave a little over towards interest.

“I do not know that I want to say a great deal more. Mr. Mackley, my colleague and assistant, also desires to say a few words. I take this opportunity of again thanking you all for the expressions of support and goodwill that have been extended to Mr. Mackley and myself, and I assure you these thanks are very sincere. I feel very fortified in taking over this new position with the knowledge that I will have Mr. Sterling's guidance and experience in his new position as Chairman of the Government Railways Board, and that has assisted me to a great extent in reconciling myself to the very difficult duty that I have to perform in filling his lately vacated position. I thank you once again, gentlemen.”