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Railway Progress in New Zealand
General Manager's Message

The measure of alertness constantly required on any railway system develops as the experience of the individual increases. This results in the creation of a kind of sixth sense amongst the employees in regard to factors of danger that aids in the prevention of accident, and has had much to do with the notable record of safety associated with the operations of this form of transport.

It may be interesting to the public to know just what the railway men in New Zealand do when some unusual occurrence, such as the recent earthquake, calls for special precautions to ensure the safety of travellers.

Immediately the shake of the 5th of March occurred, the Department's own telephone and telegraph system was used to discover and record the actual area along railway routes in any way affected by the disturbance. The earthquake occurred at 11.48 p.m. Within approximately two hours the Engineer in charge of the district left Wellington with a break-down train and repair gang for the spot (near Paraparaumu) where repairs were most urgently required from a traffic viewpoint. By 7.0 a.m. the track was sufficiently repaired for the slow passage of trains. Besides special inspection and patrol by all track maintenance gangs, and the issuing of instructions to engine-drivers to proceed cautiously, arrangements were made for careful inspection of all kinds of structures, especially those, such as bridges, tunnels, culverts, etc., in anyway associated with running tracks. For this purpose the new rail-car was immediately requisitioned for the Chief Engineer and his inspecting officers to travel the route through the Wairarapa, Hawke's Bay and Manawatu districts, examining, and where considered desirable, testing, everything of importance for safety en route. The greatest delay to any train running when the earthquake occurred was less than four hours, no passenger service was cancelled and, although in places tracks subsided, slips occurred and tracks got out of alignment, no accident of any kind occurred to any passenger or goods train on the railway. It is estimated that railway repairs will cost £3,000.

I wish on behalf of the Government Railways Board and myself to express to the staff appreciation of their good service on this occasion. Their handling of the whole emergency was excellent and the standard of service which is associated with our maintenance and train running staffs on occasions of grave emergency was fully maintained.

General Manager.