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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 10, Issue 3 (June 1, 1935)

Railway Progress in New Zealand — General Manager's Message

page 8

Railway Progress in New Zealand
General Manager's Message

The very favourable reception accorded by the Press to the recently published results of the railway financial year (which ended on the 31st March last) may be taken as indicating general public approval of the Board's policy as applied to the administration of the Department and of the satisfactory service given by railwaymen in securing the considerable measures of increased business which the figures reveal.

But in the keen competition for business, as it is now carried on, there can be no such thing as resting on one's laurels. Internally and externally there must be a constant pressure kept up to hold what we have in the way of custom and customers, and to secure more wherever possible.

Some recent changes in executive and district re-organisation have been made public. They have grown out of this need for effort towards expansion. For instance, the re-appointment of a Transport Superintendent, the increase in the inspectorial duties of the Staff Superintendent, and the other changes made to strengthen the personnel at headquarters represent not merely an effort to make the internal management and supervision still more efficient, but also they are part of an intensified drive along the whole front of the railway transport organisation to ensure that, wherever it touches the public, it may be sensitive to every transport requirement or opening, and ready with offers of cheap and reliable service of the kind the public will desire and appreciate.

Just as the purveyors of new commodities do not usually find a market ready waiting for them, but have to set about creating a demand, so the Department, in pioneering new transport services, has found means to create a demand not previously existent and to build up profitable new lines of business. It has only been by effort of this kind that the progress recorded in recent years has been possible, and it is only by continued effort in the same direction that the future can be secured.

I take this opportunity of thanking the public, on behalf of the Board, for the splendid manner in which they have stood by their own railways, and to the staff for their good work in securing that goodwill.

General Manager.