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Railway Progress in New Zealand.
General Manager's Message.
Value of Consultation.

Last month I paid a brief visit to Australia to attend the biennial conference of the Australian and New Zealand Railway Commissioners, a conference which, by the way, will next time be held in New Zealand, during the Dominion's centennial year.

The greatest impression left on my mind from the present visit was the value to all concerned of consultations of this kind. The way had been prepared by a gathering of selected senior officers from all the Australian States and New Zealand some months previously, at which preliminary technical discussions were held and recommendations made for the Commissioners' Conference to consider.

The wealth of experience in every phase of railway activity revealed as a result of these two conferences was of great value, I am sure, to all who attended, and the respective railway systems stand to benefit considerably from the free exchange of views and the practical consideration given by each of the Commissioners present to the problems of transport in the various States represented. In this connection I wish to pay tribute to the unfailing courtesy and gracious hospitality extended by the various Railway executives and organisations with which I made contact during my visit, and I look forward to the opportunity which New Zealand will have in 1940 to make some return for the many courtesies shown towards the New Zealand representatives.

It has become a well-established practice amongst railway organisations to pool their knowledge for the advancement of railway interests generally, and from many years experience I can say that any inquiry directed by letter from one railway system to another receives the most thorough and painstaking reply. But helpful as this assistance is, it can only have its full value when considered as a forerunner to personal consultation between the authorities concerned.

The importance of verbal discussion between representatives is, of course, recognised largely in national and international affairs, but the value of the principle applied to industrial and transport organisations such as railways, which operate in every civilised country, is clearly revealed in conferences of the kind to which I have referred.

I may say that the 1938 conference was of special importance in view of the very marked changes which have occurred in the transport field in the past two years, and the many new features which have been introduced in an effort to keep pace with a constantly rising demand for still higher standards in the quality of service given by the Railways and their auxiliary transport agencies.

The results of the work of the Conference will, I believe, be beneficial to the people of Australia and New Zealand, and result in the introduction of improvements which the various Commissioners unanimously agreed would be for the good of the industry as a whole.

General Manager.