In this issue of the Magazine, Empire subjects have been specially featured. The occasion is particularly appropriate in view of the Empire importance of the present Ducal Tour, and the part which the Railways of this country are privileged to play in connection with the New Zealand portion of that itinerary.
Bearing in mind the advantage, from an educational aspect, of keeping before our own people the essential facts of British History, we have compacted within the space available brief biographical sketches, in classified and chronological order, of certain leading figures in the Empire's drama.
If this summary helps in some degree to refresh our readers' mental picture of Empire development and achievements, our purpose will have been attained.
Contents
EditorialOur Empire.
Whilst our Royal visitors on their Imperial mission are helping by that most magnetic of all agencies — the personal touch—to strengthen the cohesion between the many parts of Britain's far-flung Empire; and “at a time when all the nations under the flag are breathing freely—for has not the Imperial Conference evolved a formula which meets the needs of each Imperial unit as well as of the whole conglomerate mass?—at such a time the railway users and railway workers of this Dominion may well lift their minds for a space from the tasks of every day, and calmly consider under what broad conditions of government their lives proceed.
Through a thousand years of turmoil, testing, and development, Britain slowly evolved those practical principles of freedom which in speech, in action, and in civil protection have made her great in the Homeland, and successful—as no other nation has been successful—in planting colonies overseas. Those colonies, grown to Dominion or Common-wealth stature, zealously foster that love of freedom, and stand together, a cluster of free nations, for its protection. Well they know that their Empire's highest aspiration—which approximates closely to Bacon's ideal of heaven upon earth for the individual mind—is to “move in charity, rest in providence, and turn upon the poles of truth.”
Railways, like most of the civilising influences which the blossoming of mechanical genius has brought to mankind, took their rise during the period known economically as the Industrial Revolution. The peace which supremacy at sea then gave Britain, enabled her to forge ahead during this great change period, the inventions of which produced the demands for transport facilities that railways alone could supply. But peace at home, and concentration in the fields of manufacture and commerce, did not rob the Briton of his adventurous spirit. Opportunity for expansion lay in the sun-filled lands where British enterprise and daring had planted the Union Jack. Canada, Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand became peopled with the same hardy stock which had for century upon century repelled every attack on their island home and every encroachment on their firmly established freedom-securing customs and institutions.
Thus has developed the greatest Empire in the world's history. But it is not for its size, great as that is; nor for its wealth, though that is well-nigh incalculable, that New Zealanders love their Empire. It is because the Empire stands—more than any other force upon the whole round globe—for right dealing, fair play, and the preservation of individual freedom with full opportunity for individual development. Britain brought freedom and taught freedom wherever her flag of Empire waved.
Emerson, great though his admiration for his native America, was constrained to say that Britain had yielded more able men in five hundred years than any other nation. The scroll of Empire history is studded with the names of sages, singers, patriots and heroes to whom the Homeland meant the dearest of ties—something more vital than life itself. “Our ancestors” said Burke, “have turned a savage wilderness into a glorious empire; and have made the most extensive, and the only honourable conquests, not by destroying, but by promoting the wealth, the number, the happiness, of the human race.” While those methods and sentiments continue to guide the peoples and rulers of the British Commonwealth of Nations, our Empire, proceeding towards its high destiny, will continue to find the signals set at “clear.”
Photograph of the Royal Grain which is carrying the Royal Party over the North Island portion of their tour in N.Z.After inspection of the Royal Grain at Wellington.Left Rt. Hon. CoatesCentre—Mr. G. S. Lynde, Chief Mechanical Engineer; Right—The Hon. F. J. Rolleston, Acting Minister of Railways.
The Royal Tour Includes Visits To:—
Auckland, Bay of Islands, Hamilton, Rotorua, Tokaanu (Camp), National Park, New Plymouth, Stratford, Hawera, Wanganui, Palmerston North, Dannevirke, Hastings, Napier, Woodville. Masterton, Welligton, Picton, Blenheim, Havelock, Nelson, Glenhope, Murchison, Westport, Inangahua, Reefton, Hokitika, Greymouth, Christchurch, Ashburton, Timaru, Oamaru, Dunedin, Ranfurly, Cromwell, Pembroke, Queenstown, Kingston, Lumsden, Gore, Invercargill, Bluff.
The New Zealand
Railways
Magazine
Railways
Magazine
Published by the
New Zealand Government Railways Department
“
For Better Service”Vol. 1. No. 9.
Wellington,
New Zealand
February25, 1927
The Board's Message.
Our Royal Visitors.
The approaching visit to these shores of Their Royal Highnesses, the Duke and Duchess of York, gives to the Railway staff of the Dominion an exceptional opportunity to pay honour to the Royal Family—and through it, to the Empire the members of that Family so worthily so worthily represent.
The Board recognises (as each member of the Service will recognise) that our Empire is the glorious heritage of every British-born subject; an Empire made great and still growing greater because based on those vital principles of freedom and equity the maintenance of which, through all her borders, has been—and continues to be—the fixed determination and ruling passion of the British race.
The occasion is one of great historic importance, the Royal visit coming as a fitting climax to the Imperial Conference of 1926—the most important Empire event since peace was declared.
To the Railways has been entrusted the privilege and responsibility of conveying the Royal Tourists over the major portion of their journeys throughout New Zealand. It is with a confidence firmly based on past experience that the Board asks the co-operation of every member employed on any duty connected with the operation of the Royal trains, or engaged anywhere along the route by which the Royal party will travel, to do all in their power to ensure the safety and comfort, and add to the pleasure of these visitors from the heart of our Empire. Let us, throughout the period of their stay, endeavour to establish, by co-operative efficiency, a record for courtesy and service.
Orderliness being a first assistant to safety, the Board asks not only controlling officers, but every employee from porter, surfaceman, cleaner or cadet, up through all grades of the service, to enter into the spirit of the movenent by having everything under their immediate care spick and span in anticipation of the event.
Further, when the tour is in progress, let every care be taken to see that the special instructions circulated regarding train operations and working methods are intelligently carried out. This with particular reference to matters affecting the safety and comfort of our visitors. By every member giving of his best, he will do credit to his country and his Empire.
We already know that the opinion held regarding railways by his Royal Highness is a high one. Speaking at the 1925 Railway Centenary Celebrations he said (inter alia): “Railways, the facilities they afford and the vitally important services they daily render to the community have become so commonplace in these days that we barely give a passing thought to their influence on our lives. Their faithful services bring us the necessities of life; their speed, reliability and cheapness have combined to break down the barriers of distance, so that now we think mainly of the time railways have helped to save, and thus to lengthen life.”
Such appreciation cannot fail to strike a responsive chord in the hearts of all railwaymen. It must be remembered, however, that as our visitors are coming from the Homeland, where railways have reached their highest pitch of excellence, it will require our best efforts to provide a standard of service worthy of the occasion. Nevertheless, judging by the whole hearted way in which all concerned have entered into the preliminary preparations, the Board feels assured that in their further efforts in this direction the staff will amply uphold the traditions of the Railway Service in this country.
Finally, the Board on behalf of all the staff, desires to take this opportunity of extending a hearty welcome to Their Royal Highnesses, the Duke and Duchess of York, and all their entourage. We trust that their stay will be a happy one for themselves, as it will be a memorable one for the people of New Zealand.
Visit of Their Royal Highnesses, the Duke and Duchess of York to New Zealand, 1927.
H.M.S. “Renown” conyeying the Royal party; also brought the Prince of Wales to New Zealand in 1920.
H.R.H. The Duke of York addressing gathering at Railway Centenary Celebrations. The Duchess is seated on the right and
Royal Tour Of New Zealand.1 Russell 2 Tokaanu (Near Site Of Royal Camp) 3 Pembroke Hotel (Southern Lakes District)4 Buller River (West Coast, S.I.) 5 Scene In Tongariro National Park, N.I.
Royal Tour Of New Zealand.1 Rotorua Plains 2 Huka Falls (Waikato River) 3 Ngauruhoe4 Gardens, Rotorua 5 Maori Gathering, Rotorua
British History In Brief.
The Growth Of An Empire.
To scan the pages of history and therefrom briefly summarise the dominant influences at work in the development of an Empire is no easy task, and in the case of Britain it is an amazingly complicated one. But, once done, the outline so obtained may serve to make coherent the mass of detached ideas generally prevalent regarding the story of our people. Properly apprehended, such knowledge is the true justification for the strength of that deep-seated patriotic pride which enables the British-born to meet with calm assurance each turn of the wheel of international fortune.
The appended logical outline, from J. N. Larned's History, excellently serves the purpose in view:—
The Island of Britain, separated from the Continent of Europe by a narrow breadth of sea, which makes friendly commerce easy and hostile invasion difficult;—its soil in great part excellent; its northern climate tempered by the humid warmth of the Gulf Stream; its conditions good for breeding a robust population, strongly fed upon corn and meats; holding, moreover, in store, for later times, a rare deposit of iron and coal, of tin and potter's clay, and other minerals of like utility; was occupied and possessed by tribes from Northern Europe, of the strongest race in history; already schooled in courage and trained to enterprise by generations of sea-faring adventure; uncorrupted by any mercenary contact with the decaying civilisation of Rome, but ready for the knowledge it could give.
Fused after much warring with one another and with their Danish kin, into a nation of Englishmen, they lived, for five centuries, an isolated life, until their insular and independent character had become deeply ingrained, and the primitive system of their social and political organisation—their Townships, their Hundreds, their Shires, and the popular moots or courts, which determined and administered law in each—was rooted fast; though the King's power waxed and the nobles and the common people drew farther apart.
Then they were mastered (in the last successful invasion that their Island ever knew) by another people, sprung from their own stock, but whose blood had been warmed and whose wit had been quickened by Latin and Gallic influences in the country of the Franks.
A new social and political system now formed itself in England as the result:—Feudalism modified by the essential democracy inherent in old English institutions—producing a stout commonalty to daunt the lords, and a strong aristocracy to curb the king.
English royalty soon weakened itself yet more by ambitious strivings to maintain and extend a wide dominion over-seas, in Normandy and Aquitaine; and was helpless to resist when barons and commons came together to demand the signing and sealing of the great charter of Englishmen's rights.
Out of the conditions that gave birth to Magna Charta there followed, soon, the development of the English Parliament as a representative legislature, from the Curia Regis of the Normans and the Witenagemot of the older English time.
From the woful wars of a hundred years with France which another century brought upon it, the nation, as a whole, suffered detriment, no doubt, and its progress was hindered in many ways; but politically the people took some good from the troubled times, because their kings were more dependent upon them for money and men.
So, likewise, they were bettered in some ways by the dreadful civil wars of the Roses, which distracted England for thirty years. The nobles well nigh perished, as an order, in these wars, while the middle class people at large suffered relatively little, in numbers or estate.
But, previously, the Great Plague, by diminishing the ranks of the labouring class, had raised wages and the standard of living among them, and had helped with other causes, to multiply the small land-owners and tenant farmers of the country, increasing the independent common class.
Moreover, from the time of Edward Iii., who encouraged Flemish weavers to settle in England and to teach their art to his people, manufactures began to thrive; trade extended; towns grew in population and wealth, and the great burgher middle class rose rapidly to importance and weight in the land.
But the commons of England were not prepared to make use of the actual power which they held. The nobles had led them in the past; it needed time to raise leaders among themselves, and time to organise their ranks. Hence no new checks on royalty were ready to replace those constraints which had been broken by the ruin of great houses in the civil wars, and the crown made haste to improve its opportunity for grasping power. There followed, under the Tudors, a period of absolutism greater than England had known before.
But this endured only for the time of the education of the commons, who conned the lessons of the age with eagerness and with understanding. The new learning from Greece and Rome; the new world knowledge that had been found in the West; the new ideas which the new art of the printer had furnished with wings—all these had now gained their most fertile planting in the English mind. Their flower was the splendid literature of the Elizabethan age; they ripened fruits more substantial at a later day.
The intellectual development of the nation tended first towards a religious independence, which produced two successive revolts—from Roman Papacy and from the Anglican Episcopacy that succeeded it.
Trowel used by King George V. when Duke of York, in laying the foundation stone of the Railway Head Office building in Wellington, twenty-six years ago.
This religious new-departure of the English people gave direction to a vast expansion of their energies in the outside world. It led them into war with Spain, and sent forth Drake and Hawkins and the Buccaneers, to train the sailors and pilot the merchant adventurers who would soon make England mistress of all the wide seas.
Then, when these people, strong, prosperous and intelligent, had come to be ripely sufficient for self-government, there fell to them a foolish race of kings who challenged them to a struggle which stripped royalty of all but its fictions and established the sovereignty of England in its House of Commons for all time.
Unassailable in its Island,—taking part in the great wars of the 18th century by its fleets and its subsidies chiefly, busy with its undisturbed labours at home,—vigorous in its conquests, its settlements and its trade, which it pushed into the farthest parts of the earth,—creating wealth and protecting it from spoliation and from waste,—the English nation now became the industrial and economic school of the age. It produced the mechanical inventions which first opened a new era in the life of mankind on the material side; it attained to the splendid enlightenment of freedom in trade; it made England the workshop and mart of the world, and it spread her Empire to every Continent, through all the seas.
Sovereigns
Alfred The Great.
871–901 A.D.
The first to bear the title of Earl in England, Alfred the Great, “the saint, the scholar, the hero, and the law-giver,” is the ancestor in a direct line, of the Duke of York whom, with his Duchess, it will be New Zealand's honour to entertain within a few days.
Historians have combined to glorify the name of Alfred, the first real English King. “No other man” said one, “ever combined in his own person so much excellence in war, legislation and learning.”
The story of the manner in which the young Alfred won a richly bound and illuminated volume of Saxon poems for being the first of his family able to recite them, and his later scholastic achievements are well known. He translated books, including Aesop's fables, into the Anglo-Saxon language and under his direction the famous Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the earliest history which any European country possesses in its own language, was compiled. Furthermore, he encouraged education within his Kingdom, brought learned men from the Continent to teach in England and founded the University of Oxford—to which our own Rhodes Scholars now proceed.
King Alfred
The success with which Alfred repelled the attacks of the Danes, those fierce marauders who were over-running the land, convinces us of his military ability. For the more efficient defence of his Kingdom against the Danes he built a fleet and organised the fyrd, or militia, in such a manner that one half was always available for fighting and the remaining half for the maintenance of the agricultural crops which provided food for the nation.
At a time when the staple diet was “salt pork, fish, and floods of strong beer” and the general desire was merely to eat, drink and be merry, Alfred brought a passion for order, education, and right living to his task of kingship—assumed at the early age of twenty-one—which deserved the gratitude and admiration of all subsequent generations. His day was divided into three parts: (a) State business; (b) prayer and study; (c) sleep, meals and recreation; and these divisions, measured by candles, were strictly adhered to.
Alfred's political institutions, his code of laws, and his strict administration of justice give him a strong claim to the title of “Great.” On account of the stern impartiality with which his enactments were carried out, crime became rare. Judges were under the supervision of the King and any found guilty of corrupt practices were harshly punished. The terror of his name was so great that it was said “golden ornaments might be hung by the roadside and no robber would dare to touch them.”
The fact that Alfred suffered from an internal disease which spared him scarcely a painless hour for over twenty years makes his achievements even more remarkable.
Edward I.
1272–1307.
Edward was absent in the Holy Land with the Seventh Crusade when his father Henry III. died. He was popular in England and despite his absence no attempt was made to usurp the throne. According to tradition, while in the Holy Land Edward was stabbed with a poisoned arrow, and his recovery from what appeared a mortal injury was due to his wife (Eleanor of Castile) sucking the poison from the wound.
Edward was ambitious. He aimed to become the overlord of the whole of the island of which England was a part. To achieve this he must subdue Wales and Scotland. The reigning chief in Wales had assisted in the rebellions of the reign of Henry III. and refused to swear allegiance to Edward. On account of the mountainous nature of their country the Welsh were, for a considerable period, able to withstand the English attacks. Eventually, however, Edward forced them to terms, and by the Statute of Wales, enacted at Rhuddlan in 1284, Wales was annexed to England. Edward presented his infant son and heir to the Welsh under the title of Prince of Wales. Another two hundred years elapsed before Wales sent representatives to the English Parliament.
But the annexation of Scotland was a task which Edward failed to complete. It had been arranged that Prince Edward of Wales should marry Margaret, the “Maid of Norway” who was heir to the Scottish Crown. Before this scheme was effected Margaret died, thus confusing the succession. Several claimants came forward making the situation difficult. It was agreed that Edward of England should be appealed to. Edward gave his decision in favour of
This arrangement did not last, for while Edward was engaged with France, Balliol took the opportunity of attempting to win independence for Scotland. The English won the battle of Dunbar, Balliol was deprived of his throne, and Scotland was made a dependency of England.
First Complete Parliament.—Edward justly believed “that it was right that what concerned all should be approved by all.” This caused him to summon in 1295 his famous Parliament representing the three estates of the realm—Lords, Clergy and Commons. This is often referred to as “The Model Parliament” and is generally considered to be the true origin of our present Legislature.
The English Justinian.—Edward's summarising of English laws won for him the title of the “English Justinian.” Many constitutional changes were effected during his reign. Enactments regarding the titles and entailment of land were made, the law courts were re-organised and officers afterwards known as Justices of the Peace were appointed.
From the deeds of Edward we conclude that he was a brave and skilled soldier, and a sagacious and successful statesman.
Edward I.
On the death of King Henry IV., the head of the House of Lancaster who had usurped the throne, his frivolous and riotous son, Prince Henry, was transformed into the brave King Henry V.
The Hundred Years' War with France, which was commenced by Edward III. nearly eighty years before, was resumed. The Church, desirous of diverting the attention of Parliament from the confiscation of the church property, and the barons, restless through the continued peace, welcomed the resumption of the war.
Henry invaded France with an army of thirty thousand and after five weeks' siege Harfleur surrendered. Through privation and sickness the English army dwindled to half its original number. On the march to Calais Henry encountered the French army at Agincourt. The English were very much outnumbered, but owing to the skill of their bowmen and the superior organisation of their army they were able to obtain a most decisive victory over the French. This battle clearly demonstrated that well trained infantry men were much superior to undisciplined cavalry forces.
Henry's triumphs in France won for him the hearts of his people and he was received with unbounded joy in England.
By the Treaty of Troyes it was agreed that Henry should marry the daughter of the French King, and that until the death of the French King Henry should be Regent of France and thereafter King of France.
Unfortunately he did not live long to enjoy the glory that his military genius had won for him.
Although the greater part of France had submitted to Henry V., at the close of the next reign Calais was the only English possession in France.
Queen Elizabeth.
Elizabeth.
1558–1603.
The pages recording the events of the Tudor Period are among the brightest in our history. The reign of Henry VII., the first of the Tudors, marks the birth of modern policy and the foundation of our still enduring system. It was an age of discovery and of intellectual development. Columbus and Cabot crossed the Atlantic to North America. Americus Vespuccius explored the coast of South America and gave his name to the new continent. Vasco de Gama sailed round the Cape of Good Hope, thus finding a sea route to India. Commerce greatly extended. True English literature was in its dawn. Modern scientific development dates from this time and old theories never previously queried were disproved. During the period the Reformation—one of the greatest events in modern
William III.
Elizabeth was the last of the Tudor Monarchs. Probably the most important event in her reign was the defeat of the so-called “Invincible Armada,” a great fleet sent by Philip II. of Spain to conquer England.
Among the sovereigns of England, Elizabeth, resolute, watchful and self-controlled, has had few equals. She encouraged her admirals in voyages of discovery, she inspired the dramatic art for which her reign is particularly noted, and aided all schemes designed for the consolidation of her Kingdom.
.William Iii . And Mary
1689–1702.
James II., the last of the Stuart Kings, in his attempts to rule as an absolute monarch and to restore the Roman Catholic religion, lost the support of his subjects. William, Prince of Orange, was entreated by the English people to come with an army to assist them in defending their freedom and their faith. William consented and James fled.
In 1689 a Convention, differing from a Parliament in that the writs summoning members were issued by one not yet a king, was called by William. It was decided that William and Mary should rule conjointly, but that William should hold all executive power. Louis of France, the most powerful Roman Catholic sovereign in Europe, had long wished to destroy the power of William of Orange, who was regarded as the champion of protestantism. The dethronement of James gave the French King an excuse for war, and a mighty invasion of England was prepared. The combined fleets of England and Holland decisively defeated the French fleet off La Hogue in 1692, thus shattering the ambitions of Louis.
During the reign many important bills were passed. The Triennial Bill provided that no Parliament should sit for longer than three years. The plan of a National Bank suggested by Paterson, a Scotchman, was adopted, and in 1694 the Bank of England was established.
In politics William was deeply learned, in military discipline he was skilled, and in battle he was calm and courageous. As a soldier he was among the most distinguished of his day and his successes in checking the forces of the French King were of the utmost importance to all Europe.
Queen Mary.
Queen Anne.
Queen Anne.
1702–1714.
Queen Anne, the second daughter of James II., married Prince George of Denmark, who apart from sitting in the House of Lords as Duke of Cumberland, took no active part in the government.
Britain, allied with Holland and Germany, opposed the attempt of the French King to place his grandson on the Spanish Throne, and Churchill, afterwards Duke of Marlborough, was appointed commander of the combined armies. In four great battles, Blenheim, Ramillies, Oudenarde and Malplaquet, Marlborough humbled the power of France. In 1710 Admiral Rooke and Sir Cloudesley Shovel captured Gibraltar. By the Treaty of Utrecht, drawn up at the close of the war, Gibraltar, Minorea, Hudson's Bay, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland became English possessions. Furthermore it provided that France should acknowledge the protestant succession in England and discontinue attempting to replace Roman Catholics on the throne.
On account of the dissatisfaction caused in Scotland by the failure of the scheme to form a colony on the Isthmus of Darien and the heavy duties imposed on goods passing between England and Scotland a Treaty of Union was framed. It enacted (1) That the two Kingdoms should be united under the name of “Great Britain,” (2) that the succession to the throne of Great Britain should be the same as that for England, (3) that the United Kingdom should be governed by one Parliament, (4) that sixteen peers and forty-five commoners should represent Scotland in Parliament, (5) that the laws relating to trade, customs and excise should be the same in both countries, (6) that the church and law courts of Scotland as already established should be maintained. The Treaty of Union was passed by the Scottish Parliament with a big majority and the Union, the beneficial results of which are incalculable, was effected.
Throughout her reign Anne showed a keen interest in affairs of state and appointed her ministers with discretion. Her private life was one of great sorrow, for, although she had a large family, all her children died young. On her death the Elector of Hanover, of whom our present sovereign is a direct descendant, became King as George I.
Bouquet Holder in silver, greenstone and pearls, presented to the Duchess of Cornwall and York on the occasion of laying foundation-stone of Railway Head Office, Wellington, June 21st, 1901. (Designed by Ad Howitt. Chief Draughtsman, N.Z.R.)
Royal Tour Of New Zealand
1 Oamaru 2 Hamilion (Wairaio) 3 Square, Palmersion North
4 Auckland 5 Christchurch (River Avon)
Royal Tour Of New Zealand
1 Napier 2 New Plymouth 3 Hawera 4 Napier 5 Wanganui
The England around us becomes our own England, an England whose chief forces are industry and science, the love of popular freedom and of law, an England which presses steadily forward to a larger social justice and equality, and which tends more and more to bring every custom and tradition, religious, intellectual, and political, to the test of pure reason.— John Richard Green.
From the words of this great historian our thoughts inevitably drift to the famous statesmen who have steered the British ship of state through the troubled waters of the past few centuries and whose work has helped to mould the Empire to its present state of elastic unity. The following sketches contain some glimpses of the leading figures in this gallery of the illustrious.
.Sir Robert Walpole
.William Pitt , The Younger
Sir Robert Peel
Sir Robert Peel was born at Chamber Hall, on 5th February, 1788. He was educated at Harrow, the poet Byron being one of his schoolfellows. He later went on to Oxford where he took a double first in classics and mathematics. Peel early turned his attention to politics, and at the age of twenty-one was elected to the House of Commons as member for Cashel. At twenty-three he was appointed Under Secretary of State for the Colonies which appointment was followed soon afterwards by that of Chief Secretary for Ireland. He was made Home Secretary in 1822, and after many vicissitudes became Prime Minister in 1841. He was a brilliant speaker and exercised immense influence in the House of Commons and throughout Europe. The repeal of the Corn Laws and the establishment of Free Trade as the commercial policy of England were his greatest achievements. Sir Robert Peel also established the metropolitan police, and was responsible for the passing of a measure which improved the criminal laws of his country. Lord Rosebery described him as “one of the princes of mankind.” Sir Robert Peel died as a result of an accident on 2nd July, 1850.
Viscount Palmerston.
Viscount Palmerston was born at Broad-lands, on 20th October, 1784, and was educated at Harrow, Edinburgh and Cambridge. He was elected to Parliament as member for Newport in the Isle of Wight at the age of twenty-three being at once appointed a Lord of the Admiralty. Two years later he was offered the position of Chancellor of the Exchequer which he did not accept. He accepted, however, the Secretaryship at War, and served in this capacity with great ability and efficiency for nearly twenty years. In 1830 he became Foreign Secretary, and immediately confirmed the independence of Belgium, an action which was to mean so much to future history. For the next eleven years, and again from 1846 to 1851, he was recognised as one of the greatest Foreign Ministers in Europe. “His policy raised the prestige of England to a height which she had not occupied since Waterloo.” He preserved peace, rendered notable services to oppressed peoples, worked for the suppression of the slave-trade and for the reduction of the working hours of women and children. He was Home Secretary in 1852–3, and from 1855 to 1858 and 1859 to 1865 he was Prime Minister. Viscount Palmerston held political power for forty-seven years and died on 18th October, 1865, full of years, of dignities and honours.
Viscount Palmerston
His bewildering genius was freely acknowledged. In moving an address to the Crown for a monument to Beaconsfield in Westminster Abbey, Gladstone referred to his “extraordinary intellectual powers, his strength of will, his long-sighted persistency of purpose” and said that “his career was in many respects the most remarkable in Parliamentary history.” He died on 19th April, 1881.
William Ewart Gladstone .
Lord Oxford And Asquith.
Lord Oxford.
.Mr. Lloyd George
The Right Hon.Stanley Baldwin .
The Rt.
The Right Hon.
England.
And when I ask myself what I mean by England, when I think of England when I am abroad, England comes to me through my various senses; through the ear, through the eye and through certain imperishable scents. I will tell you what they are, and there may be more among you who feel as I do. The sounds of England—the tinkle of the hammer on the anvil in the country smithy, the corncrake on a dewy morning, the sound of the scythe against the whetstone, and the sight of a plough team coming over the brow of a hill—the sight that has been seen in England since England was a land. The wild anemones in the woods in April, the last load at night of hay being drawn down a lane as the twilight comes on, when you can scarcely distinguish the figures of the horses as they take it home to the farm, and, above all, most subtle, most penetrating and most moving, the smell of wood smoke coming up in an autumn evening, or the smell of the scutch fires: that wood smoke that our ancestors, tens of thousands of years ago, must have caught on the air when they were coming home with the result of the day's forage, when they were still nomads and when they were still roaming the forests and the plains of the Continent of Europe. These things strike down into the very depths of our nature and touch chords that go back to the beginning of time and the human race, but they are chords that with every year of our life sound a deeper note in our innermost being.
—
* * *
Can we not get out of our minds in industry, as we are trying in connection with national affairs, that absurd old-fashioned idea that fighting alone is the key to the problem of British industry?—
A Boss Pianist!”
Dear Mr. Editor,—
I send you the following contribution, feeling confident that you will be able to find room for it in the columns of your interesting magazine, and that your readers will appreciate the humorous method of recounting his experience in having a “ride on a piano” as told by Jem Nelson, one of America's oldest engine drivers, at an annual “meet.”
John B. Robertson, Public Works Dept., Wellington.
“Listen,
I was loafing around town last night and as I had nothing better to do I dropped into a concert and heard a slick looking Frenchman play a piano that made me feel all over in spots. As soon as he sat down at the piano I knew by the way he handled his work that he understood the machine he was running. He tapped the keys 'way down on one end, just as if they were gauges and he wanted to see if he had water enough. Then he looked up as if he wanted to know how much steam he was carrying, and the next moment he pulled open the throttle and sailed out on the main line as if he was half an hour late. You could hear her thunder over culverts and bridges and getting faster and faster, until the fellow rocked about on his seat like a cradle,—somehow I thought it was old ‘36’ pulling a passenger train and getting out of the way of a special. The fellow worked the keys on the middle division like lightning and then he flew along the northern end of the line until the drivers went around like a buzz-saw, and I got excited. About the time I was trying to tell him to cut her off a little, he kicked the dampers under the machine wide open, pulled the throttle valve 'way back into the tender and—Jerusalem—how he did run. I couldn't stand it any longer and yelled to him that he was pounding on the left and if he wasn't careful he'd drop his ash pan. No one heard me. Everything was flying and whizzing. Telegraph poles on the side of the track looked like cornstalks, the trees appeared to be mud banks, and all the time the exhaust of the old machine sounded like the hum of a humble bee. I tried to yell out, but my tongue would not move. He went round corners like a bullet, slipped an eccentric, blew out a soft plug, went down grades 50 feet to the mile, and not a confounded brake set. She went by the meeting point at a mile and a half a minute, and calling for more steam. My hair stood up like a cat's tail, because I knew the game was up. Sure enough, dead ahead of us was the tail light of a special. In a daze I heard the crash as she struck, and I saw cars shivered into atoms, people mashed and mangled, and bleeding and gasping for water. I heard another crash as the French professor struck the deep keys 'way down on the lower end of the southern division, and then I came to my senses. There he was at a dead stand-still with the door of the fire-box wide open, wiping the perspiration off his face and bowing to the people before him. If I live to be a thousand years old I'll never forget the ride that Frenchman gave me on the piano.”
Fully loaded timber train drawn by two “X” Class Engines leaving Ohakune
Gross Ton-Mile Statistics
A committee consisting of Messrs. H. Valentine (Chief Accountant), W. Bishop (Supervising Accountant), R. P. Gillies (Statistical Officer), and F. W. Aickin (District Office) was recently set up to consider what alterations to present returns were advisable to secure, in the most useful form, statistics bearing on operating costs, with particular reference to the gross-ton mileage unit. With the assistance of Messrs. S. E. Fay (Operating and Equipment Assistant) and P. G. Roussell (Acting General Superintendent of Transportation), conclusions have been reached likely to result in increased operating efficiency.
The Railway Department has, with the growth of business, found it necessary to possess statistics covering most of the phases of its business, a constant analysis of operations being essential for the improvement of services and for securing economic working. The Railways have a commodity to sell—transport. They may also be said to be the manufacturers of transport. As with all sellers it is necessary to know the extent of the sales and the selling cost, and for this purpose standard units of measurement are required. A carrying concern cannot—like the trader—have a stocktaking, and, therefore, must resort to methods peculiar to its calling. Methods of working are constantly changing, and, without information showing the results obtained, it is impossible to know whether the changed methods have proved beneficial.
Mascot issued by National “Safety First” Association and affixed to the car of H.R.H. The Duke of York.
Statistics do not of themselves cure defects on the system—nor for that matter does the doctor's thermometer cure the patient. It has been said that a reliable set of statistics is to the administrative officer what the thermometer is to the doctor. Both point to weaknesses where such exist and make it possible to localise the faults either generally or specifically. If the former, attention can be focussed on certain aspects—perhaps a customary method of loading, while if the latter, the appropriate remedy may be applied. It is the intention of the Department to make systematic overhaul of all returns to ensure that only those that are of real value and fully justify their compilation are rendered. However interesting figures or returns may be, they should not be called for unless they are to be put to practical use. At this stage efforts are in the direction of securing information regarding the matters outlined above, namely, the sale of transport, and the cost of selling it.
There is a certain amount of antagonism exhibited by some railwaymen towards statistics. Some carp at the cost. It is therefore interesting to remember that the statistics taken out by several noted railway companies cost on the average one-thirteenth of one per cent. of the gross earnings. They have in every case improved efficiency in varying degrees. They only required to improve it by one half or one quarter per cent. to show a profit on the outlay. The prejudice is there, however, and must be overcome. The average practical railwayman of this country is not used to statistics—the science of figures—but he knows that economies have to be effected, efficiency increased, and the revenue swelled. He may then say that personal supervision and inspection can accomplish more than figures. To say that, is to speak without knowledge of the complexities and problems that face the administrative officer. A set of figures (obtained, moreover, at low cost) can say more in an hour to the man running the job than an inspector could write in a week. Apart from that, inspection is necessarily spasmodic and fragmentary however well it be done, and for that reason as an information medium it cannot
The statistic-shy person cannot be altogether blamed for his attitude as statistics of the kind now taken have only recently become essential in this country. The methods of a few years back sufficed for their day, but owing to the changed order of things, are now inadequate. To date, a number of economies and improvements have been effected as the result of taking out modern statistics, and their compilation has been justified. On the other hand it is occasionally found that the method of compiling the statistics themselves can be improved. For instance, at the present time the vehicle mile statistics are extracted from the guards' reports, but with the present form of report the operation is too costly and there is liability to error. These figures can be obtained by making a simple alteration to the guards' report sheet whereby guards will show the composition of their trains on departure from stations where the load of the train is changed. By an improved method of indicating the train tonnage, it is possible to compile that most valuable transportation costing unit—the gross ton mile. From this a further important statistic for gauging operating efficiency, viz., “the gross ton mile per hour,” is readily obtainable.
Bob's Cove, Lake Wakatipu, South Island
Compilation of the additional statistics will entail no extra cost.
The position then is that the familiar Mis-7 (guards' report form) is to be remodelled. At the left hand side of the report there will be a perforated docket which, when in use, will be folded over the main portion of the report, covering it to the extent of about four inches. By means of carbon paper, all entries made on the
The statistical information compiled from the dockets will be summarised under appropriate headings of trains and districts and supplied to controlling officers weekly. Four-weekly summaries will also be prepared, and after full analysis of the gross ton-mile figures shown thereon a statement will be appended for the information of District officers, showing complete results of the period's operations. Local operating officers will, therefore, be able to check the results of their work promptly and take such steps as may be necessary to effect improvements.
Heavy Special Train Crossing Parnell Bridge, Auckland
Apart from the statistical portion there will be other minor alterations in the Mis.-7 report. Those mentioned above necessitated a complete change in the setting, and the opportunity has been taken to make one or two improvements. Greater space has been given for the report on the reverse side, more lines have been allowed for entering the numbers of wagons at starting stations, and a place has been provided for the insertion of counts of passengers (when required).
The altered system will come into operation with the next financial year, but the new guards' sheet will be brought into use somewhat earlier to enable all concerned to become familiar with it.
Departmental Examinations.
As a further step in the direction of increasing opportunities for promotion in the service, it has now been decided that any member of Division II. who passes the Senior Examination, will be considered as having qualified for promotion to Division I. in so far as the subjects taken by him are concerned. It will, of course, be necessary for him to pass a test in telegraph operating, balancing station accounts and pricing out stores, etc., to comply with the requirements of the Regulation. The Officer-in-Charge of the Railway Correspondence School expects to commence the course of tuition for the Senior Examination at an early date.
Among the various duties of production officers at the workshops is that of checking the progress of the work on schedule in the various departments. The production officer makes a daily visit to each department, and from the leading hand or foreman he ascertains whether or not each item on the schedule is done. He asks for reasons if the job is not done, traces any material required and, where necessary, advises the general foreman or workshop manager of factors retarding the progress of the work so that the latter officers may give the question of remedy their personal attention.
The daily visits of inspection of the various jobs, in most cases the only part of the business which comes under the notice of the man on the shop floor, has caused many to be of the opinion that the production officer's task is a very simple one. But this impression is erroneous.
The question has been asked by workmen in the shops, “How can a clerical man check the progress of my work?” The idea being, of course, that it takes a tradesman to check up a tradesman's work. If the production officer's job was to check up individual men's work, that conclusion might be justified. It is the foreman's job, however, to check up the work done by everyone under his charge, he being the man from whom the production officer gets his information. In the first place the foreman of each shop is consulted in the drawing up of the schedules.
It is the schedule clerk's duty (in collaboration with the foreman), to prepare and issue schedules to suit each new job as it comes along. He does not have to be a clerk to do this, but he has to have analytical ability, in order that each job may be dissected into the component jobs that make up the whole. He has to ascertain from the foremen how long each job will take, and must chart out the plan so that each job will be done at the proper time. When any schedule contains features that have not before been encountered, the workshop manager is called in for consultation with the foremen and definite plans are devised to meet the situation.
Then, when the plan is made, the schedule clerk advises all foremen of their part and daily approaches them to see if it is done or not done with the one idea of avoiding delays to the plan.
Anyone acquainted with workshops knows, that owing to the complexity of the problem, the elimination of delays in the progress of work through the shops is a task of considerable magnitude, demanding the constant vigilance of the schedule clerk.
The production officer, on account of his knowledge of making plans and checking results, comes to know that certain things ought to be done, and could be done “on time.” He knows the number of days that are lost because of little delays (such as the non-arrival of some detail part) which results in the failure of the men to meet the conditions of the schedule.
His position commands him to take action in connection with every delay. The workshop manager (to whom he is a specialist assistant) and the foremen look to him to take action and obviate delays. Can he do it? He can do a great deal if accurate information is given him. Incorrect information invariably causes delay.
In the foregoing I have dealt with one phase only of a production officer's job. I have not dealt at all with the stores, shipping, costs, output and recording side of his work. The position calls for qualifications of a high order and covers such a range of subjects that, were not the officer full of initiative, enthusiastic, and able to withstand disappointments, he would not make a success of his work.
I want all to understand and appreciate these production jobs because every man in the workshops has an interest in assisting to get the work out “on time.” Let us all pull together and do our best work.
1. The delusion that individual advancement is made by crushing others down.
2. The tendency to worry about things that cannot be changed or corrected.
Bt Those Who Like Us
From Colonel Pow, Secretary of the Royal Agricultural Society of New Zealand:-
I would like to bring under the notice of your Board the splendid work performed by Mr. W. Thomson, Traffic Inspector, Auckland. The recent Royal Show was the third for which railway arrangements had to be made by me and I have no hesitation in stating that it would be difficult to surpass the above officer in efficiency and courteousness.
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From the Mine Manager of the Paparoa Coal Company Ltd., Roa (Blackball) to the District Traffic Manager, Christchurch:—
May we take this opportunity of thanking your Department for the help and consideration to both ourselves and our clients at a time when it was important to our business that the coal should be handled quickly. We wish to thank you personally for your trouble in marshalling and sending forward the wagons and we wish particularly to thank the local Traffic Clerk, Mr. Gembitsky, for his attention and readiness to help us, not only during the day, but on several occasions by the use of his private house telephone during the evening. It has brought home to us the fact that the Railway Board are out to help business and we cannot speak too highly of your recent effort, and of your efficiency.
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From the W. J. Lane Electrical Co., Ltd., Blenheim, to the Stationmaster in Charge, Picton:—
We beg to thank you for the consideration shown to us…… by the Blenheim stationmaster. We had a truck of our electrical goods to go forward to Seddon, but we were unfortunately a few minutes late in getting the stuff to the station. The stationmaster (Mr. D. E. Wilton), however, proved himself most courteous and obliging in the matter and gave us every assistance in getting the stuff away—a fact which we very much appreciate, as our work would otherwise have been held up. We congratulate the New Zealand Railways on having such an obliging and courteous official.
From the Secretary, Wairarapa and East Coast Pastoral and Agricultural Society, Carterton, to the Railway Board:—
We wish to place on record our appreciation of the train arrangements (both stock and passenger trains) made by the Traffic Department in connection with our recent Show, and particularly the manner in which the emergency caused by the slips in the Manawatu Gorge was met, thus enabling stock to be brought through Wellington arriving here in good time for the Show.
We also wish to place on record our appreciation of the services rendered by Mr. Barrett, Stationmaster at Carterton and his staff on this occasion…. The Show entailed a considerable amount of extra work on the stationmaster, not only before and during the Show, but also for several days afterwards….We wish also to state that but for Mr. Barrett's services in getting the special stock train for the Palmerston Show to pick up stock at Carterton, the stock would not have made the journey at all, and the revenue would have been lost to the Department. If the other officers of the service take the same personal interest in the affairs of the Railways and get as closely into touch with the users of the Railway as Mr. Barrett the risk of loss of business through road competition will not be serious.
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From Mr. D. Campbell, Manager “Cook Rock Estate,” Glenledi, Milton:—
Some four weeks ago we had occasion to use the Railway to a fairly large extent. We had to move all the live stock (sheep, cattle and horses) and implements of a large farm at St. Andrews to this estate at Milton. I think it is only right that we should voice our appreciation of Mr. Bell, Stationmaster, at St. Andrews. He is a live man. Not one hitch occurred whilst at St. Andrews in the receiving and despatching of the trucks. His willingness, cheeriness, and organising right through were thoroughly appreciated by Mr. Bowron and myself. On occasions like this the courtesies shown by Mr. Bell stand out and make one feel that the Railway Department is doing its best.
Grapes
After dinner (which was served at 6 p.m.) we took our seats in the car which went to Karapeeti (the safety valve of the North Island) and the “Huka” falls, a little higher up the Waikato.
Karapeeti blow hole is an escaping volume of superheated steam with a pressure of 180 lbs. to the square inch coming through an aperture two feet by one foot. The guide lit a sack sprinkled with kerosene so that the visitors could see the escaping steam in the darkness and after the sack had partly burnt away he picked it up on a stick and shook the burning pieces down into the blow hole. These were immediately carried up in the jet of steam and presented a very weird fireworks effect, the sparks remaining alight, proving that it was super-heated or dry steam. This blow hole, according to Maori tradition, has been constant for the last 200 years and the Maoris of the early days of New Zealand used this column of steam as a beacon to guide them with their canoes across Lake Taupo which is six miles distant.
It is very comforting to know that through this energy being dissipated, disastrous results that might follow if it were pent up for any time, are prevented.
We were then taken to the “Huka” falls, on which a searchlight was played, but, as there was a heavy fog, the effect was very disappointing. However, it enabled us to form an idea of the sight of this mass of water, which passes through a narrow opening in the rocks, pouring noisily over the edge into the space below. The lighting to supply the Geyser Hotel and surroundings is generated by the aid of these falls, for transmission at 4,000 volts.
This concluded quite a wonderful day's entertainment and the sights, if they had not been actually seen, would be really beyond the human imagination.
Ii.
After a good night's rest, we were again bowling along the road to Lake Taupo, and took advantage of a beautifully clear morning to obtain a better view of “Huka Falls.” We also took a few snap-shots.
After a five-mile drive the famous Lake Taupo, 238 square miles in area (greatest depth 534ft.), came into view. This is the world's best fishing lake, and is situated right in the middle of the North Island. Taupo is a favourite resort of trout fishermen, some really excellent catches being secured right throughout the season. On the shores of the lake is the finest geyser in the North Island, but as our time was limited, we had to “take it as read,” and after having a good look at the outlet of the lake, where it empties into the Waikato river, we turned our car for the trip back to Rotorua.
The return journey was much the same as the cutward journey, with the exception that we had lunch at the “Waiotapu” (Sacred Water) Geyser Hotel, and, afterwards, saw the Lady Knox geyser playing, it having been soaped. (It plays for 20 minutes after being soaped.) We also saw the boiling mud lake and mud volcano and a few steaming pools.
We proceeded to Rotorua and, on arriving, took the bus to the Maori village of Whakarewarewa. This is by far the most popular of the sights of the Thermal regions as it is within a mile of Rotorua, the cost being within the means of all—the bus fare 1/6 return, and the round of the village 1/6- including the guide's fee. We were taken round Whakarewarewa by a Maori lady guide called “
A little further on we saw a Maori woman and child having a bath in a pool with their clothes on; also a maiden doing some washing. The boiling of the copper on washing day, the lighting of fires and the calling of the coalman, are dispensed with here where nature provides the necessary. [It is at this particular spot that today's newspaper reports a subsidence in the front of the meetinghouse leaving a hole of boiling water, 15 feet deep and 10 feet wide. We walked quite close to this spot.] Here we were shown where a tourist took a short cut and the thin silica crust breaking, he slipped down to the armpits scalding his legs so severely that he died shortly afterwards. Close by there was a boiling mineral water pool. This is calculated to be 250 feet deep. The guide's uncle was lost in this pool and never seen again, so they
Close by is the geyser “Pohutu” which plays every 24 hours normally, but can be made to play by blocking the cold water from running in. This geyser plays to a height of about 25 feet. Next this is the “Cat's Eye Pool,” so named owing to the presence of black oil in the boiling mud. Every bubble coming up brings a spot of oil which centres in the middle of the bubble resembling the pupil of an eye.
We then visited the model Pa which stands on some high ground and represents the different buildings and whares (houses) of a Pa. There was the “Patuka” (Store House) and the “Whakarongatai” (Meeting or Listening House). These had carved figures on their front entrances representing some episode in Maori history. “Tutanekai,” a chief, is represented playing his flute. “Hinemoa,” a Maori maiden of a rival tribe holding the gourds she swam with to the island of Mokoia to see her lover, “Tutanekai.” “Maui” (The God of Fish) who, the legend tells us, brought up the South Island of New Zealand on his fishing line. The “God of Carving” is also represented. He is said to have had only three fingers on each hand, hence all Maori carved images have only three fingers.
Soaping the “Lady Knox” Geyser
With reference to “Tutanekai,” “Hinemoa” and “Mokoia” the story is told that Tutanekai, a very handsome young chieftain living on the Island of Mokoia, which is in the middle of Lake “Rotorua” (Twin Lakes), used to play his flute (an instrument made from a reed) which so charmed Hinemoa, a maiden of a rival tribe living on the shores of Lake Rotorua, that she fell in love with him, but her father would never consent to her being taken across the lake to Mokoia in the canoes. She eventually decided to swim across one night and, with the aid of gourds and directed by the sound of the flute of Tutanekai, she reached the island where she was found by Tutanekai hiding in the rushes. He at once took her to be his wife, much against the wishes of the elder chiefs of the Pa, but it is from this union that the present day population of the district sprang. The name “Hinemoa” is much honoured here, and the people living on the shores of Rotorua will quote:—
One more sight and we finished Whakare-warewa. There are some silica terraces forming, and have been for years, by the water running away from some boiling pools on a slight rise in the ground. These are assuming all kinds of
It is from these latter pools of boiling water that the famous “Duchess” Bath at Rotorua is supplied. This bath has a temperature of blood heat and is much appreciated by bathers. One of its characteristics is to leave the skin beautifully soft. Two of our party indulged on several occasions and after each immersion stated that their skin was getting softer.
On the evening prior to our departure, two of our party, who had terpsichorean tendencies wandered into a dance hall, whilst the other two, still under the grip of the skin softening process, went to the Duchess Bath and, judging by the enthusiasm of these two when met later, the effects of this bath must outdo the Kruschen feeling. Referring again to the dance, our reception resembled cold storage, no doubt due to our being complete strangers, and also to a pronounced shyness on the part of the gentle sex. A thaw, however, set in and as soon as our proficiency in the art became known, we were much in demand. After a few enjoyable dances, we managed to steal out of the room unobserved, which must have proved a severe disappointment to quite a number.
(
Photo N.Z. Publicity Dept.)
Maori Washing Day. Hot pool at Whakarewarewa, Rotorua
Thus finished our most wonderful two days' journeyings. They will remain a page of three-line type in the history book of our lives. For myself I have never appreciated a trip so much as this one.
Kia Ora. Kanui taku aroha atu ki a koe.
(Good luck. Great is my love for you.)
Tuhi Kareepi.
We are obliged to estimate probabilities, and we are obliged to shape our course according to a fair and reasonable estimate of these probabilities.
(ByE. T. , Superintendent of Workshops)
Spidy
The manner in which premium work is recorded and paid, is what I now wish to make clear. In the first place a premium foreman or supervisor is assigned to record the work of each department. He carries with him the premium record form as shown below, and his duties are to check the starting and finishing times of all jobs in his section. He has to assign the allowed times, which have been duly authorised, and to make new rates when they are required. The latter have to be checked and approved by the foreman in charge.
The top portion of the premium record form is laid out so as to accurately describe the work done and its identification in the authorised schedule of allowed times. Each successive job is entered in the next line down, and additional sheets are added as required. At the end of each fortnightly period all of the allowances are totalled. This gives the “period total” of “times allowed.”
The bottom portion of the form is a record of the “time taken.” If only one man is working on a certain job his name alone appears on the form, but if there are two or more engaged on any job, all the names are so placed. The amount of time spent by each man is entered daily in the space provided for the purpose.
—
New Zealand Government Railways.—Premium Record
At the end of each period, the forms are “closed” and where necessary, all finished work is paid for. If there are several names on the form, the total hours saved are proportionately divided on the basis of the number of hours each has put in on the job and each gets that number of hours' premium at his own premium rate. If the total time taken is less than the total time allowed, the difference in time is paid for as a premium. The premium rate is fifty per cent. of the regular wages rate of the worker. Should no premium be earned, there is no penalty such as carrying forward losses which require to be made up, before premiums are again paid. Each period's forms stand alone. As previously stated, regular wages are paid whether or not any premium bonus has been earned.
Safety First
Rules For Prevention Of Accidents In Workshops.
The following notice for the guidance of employees is now conspicuously exhibited in our Workshops:—
- 1. Never turn on any power to set machinery in motion without first seeing that no one is in a position to be injured.
- 2. Do not oil, adjust, or clean machinery while it is in motion.
- 3. If, for any purpose, fencing or other safeguards are removed, do not forget to replace them before restarting work.
- 4. Do not operate any machinery unless authorised by proper authority.
- 5. If a driving belt has to be adjusted or replaced, do not attempt this unless the machinery is first stopped. In shops where a special man is engaged for attending to main belts he should be notified at once; machinists should not attempt to replace main belts unless instructed to do so by the foreman or leading hand.
- 6. Avoid wearing loose, torn clothing, long neckties, loose bootlaces or finger rings. All are dangerous as they are liable to be caught in moving parts of machinery.
- 7. Boards containing projecting nails should not be left lying about. When you see such boards either turn them over or bend the nails down.
- 8. When removing turnings, chips, shavings, etc., from machines, stop the machines first; provide yourself with a brush or other suitable cleaner. Do not remove them with your fingers or hands.
- 9. When chipping with hammer and chisel, working at emery wheel, casting with a hand ladle, or doing any work for which it is necessary to protect the eyes, special goggles should be worn.
- 10. Ladders should be placed at a safe angle to prevent slipping away, falling sideways or backwards. Secure ladders to prevent slipping away. Ladders should not be placed on running shafting.
- 11. Do not work with defective chains, tools or appliances. The attention of leading hand or foreman should be drawn to any defective appliances.
- 12. When stacking moulding boxes or any other material, be careful that they are stacked securely, and that they are not likely to fall on, or otherwise injure, passers by. Boxes, bars etc., should not be left lying about in the fairway lest other workmen trip over them.
- 13. When working on or near electric trolley wires and wires conveying current for lighting and power, care should be taken to switch the current off at the switchboard and draw the fuse. All live wires should be protected where possible.
- 14. Do not ride on steam travelling cranes or overhead electric cranes, or other moving bodies, unless it is your business to do so and is absolutely necessary.
- 15. If you are injured, no matter how slightly, report the injury immediately to the foreman or leading hand and get it dressed. A slight injury may cause blood-poisoning.
Safety Grams.
Do your thinking in the shop, not in the hospital.
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Think of what you're doing in every move you make.
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Think of what may happen with every chance you take.
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Every accident teaches a man something, if only he will learn.
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Save your eyes, a blind man has very little earning power.
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More care means fewer cares.
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Safety is sanity in action.
King Chats With Old Railwaymen.
When the King and Queen arrived at Euston Station, back from Scotland recently, nine grey-haired men, retired engine-drivers of Royal trains, were presented to their Majesties by Sir Josiah Stamp, President of the L.M.S. Railway Company. The average age of the nine old engine-drivers was 73, and between them they have driven Royal trains 20,000 miles. In charge of other trains of the ordinary services they have travelled 20,460,000 miles without an accident of any kind.
The Perils Of The Highway.
The figures recently published of motoring fatalities in the United States during 1926, when in seventy-eight of the larger cities no less than 6,128 persons lost their lives, will no doubt rouse the authorities to definite action in the direction of ensuring safety on the public highways. In New York alone there were nearly a thousand fatalities, whilst in Chicago and Detroit there were 622 and 325 fatalities respectively.
Safety Of Railway Travel.
From the returns of railway accidents just issued, it appears that only one passenger was killed in a train accident in Great Britain in 1925, Since the opening of the present century there have been two years—1901 and 1908—without a single fatality to passengers in accidents to trains, and in 1909, as in 1925, only one fatal accident occurred; whilst in each of the years 1916, 1919, and 1923 there were only three. When it is considered that over 1,700,000,000 passenger journeys by train are made every year on the railways of Great Britain, involving the running of 262,000,000 passenger train miles, it will be seen that a passenger's risk of death on the railway is so infinitesimal as to be negligible—a one in seventeen hundred millionth chance. Compared with the ever-present peril of the London streets, in which 840 persons were killed in 1925, or the heavy death-roll of 3,631 for a year on the roads of Great Britain, a journey by train to hundreds of millions of people is practically without risk. To the elaborate precautions taken to ensure the safety of the traveller by rail, may be attributed the fortunate position occupied by Great Britain. It is stated in the annual report of their Chief Inspecting Officer, that as the chances of passengers falling out of trains in motion were so small (about one in every twenty-eight million journeys) there was no justification to warrant pressure on Railway Companies to adopt a device for controlling the unlocking of carriage doors.
Otira Tunnel Traffic.
The predictions made at the opening of the Otira tunnel in August, 1923, that there would be an ever increasing volume of goods traffic conveyed by rail between Westland and Canterbury have been fully justified by results. Despite interruptions caused by floods and washouts each year, the volume of traffic continues to increase.
The gross tonnage of traffic through the tunnel from west to east in 1926 was 409,200 tons, an increase of 57,077 tons compared with 1925. Since the tunnel was opened for traffic on 4th August, 1923, the electric locomotives have hauled a total of 1,151,577 tons weight of east-bound goods trains through the tunnel.
The New South Wales Legislative Assembly has passed the first reading of the Transport Bill, which is framed on the lines of the English and New Zealand Acts, and provides for the appointment of a Transport Board (consisting of Railway Commissioners), which will be empowered to operate motor-buses in competition with privately owned services, and to order the insurance of passengers in public vehicles by the owners.
(By “
Carboniferous”—Concluded)Just as the history of a nation is printed in books of parchment and paper, so we have a history of ages immensely remote and of forms of life that have long since disappeared, written on tablets of stone. Some of its pages are illegible, but the page with which this article deals is, to the instructed reader, fairly decipherable. It is the rocky slab of the carboniferous age. There is reason to believe that it was an age of shallow, inland seas, and marshy lagoons, and that the plants were of rapid growth, loose and succulent of texture. Of the five hundred odd species of plants that flourished, one half were ferns (acrogens). So familiar in this country are their present day representatives that description is unnecessary. Growing as a dense thicket at the waters edge or in bog-land, a reed-like plant (calamite) with jointed and finely ribbed stems, and whorls of leaves springing from each point (Fig. 1) raised itself fifty or more feet high.
Fig. 1.—Calamites
A multitude of trunks darkened above by thick foliage and with each branch heavily fruited with spores mark the presence of the lycopods (Fig. 2). Their modern representatives (club mosses) are spread throughout the world as a low-growing plant, but in that age of luxuriance, like the calamites, they attained the height and bulk of an ordinary tree.
Another plant of a peculiar character had a prominent place in the carboniferous jungle. Such was its abundance that whole seams of coal appear to be entirely composed of its remains. It is the sigillaria. Its foliage probably resembled the ferns, but the trunks and roots alone have been preserved to us. (Fig. 3.) This strange tree flourished in swamps or in low ground and was remarkable for its elaborately carved and fluted stems. Each hollow or flute had its line of sculptury running down the centre. Even the roots were roughened with ornament. Other plants of the period which grew in the high tracts of the interior were stately cone-bearing pines which stood as giants of the hillside forests. Mutilated remains, devoid of root and top have been found seventy feet in length, and eighteen feet in circumference. It must not be supposed that these trees represent the entire flora of that time. Dissipation, decay and denuding agencies, have spared us only a small fragment of that rich and luxuriant growth. The experiments of Lindley have shown that different plants have different powers of resisting decay. After immersion in water for rather more than two years the mosses had disappeared and all the higher organised woody trees, such as oak and ash, had gone. Plants such as ferns, club-mosses and the pines, alone remained together.
Fig. 1a.
The sameness and monotony of the flowerless vegetation of the coal measures has often been noted, but there was a beauty, not of shade or hue, but of form and ornamentation. According to their species the lycopods bore sculptured scales or lozenges set in a frame beautified by knobs and furrows—“Diaper work exquisite in design and finish.” (Fig. 4.)
If we take an ordinary piece of coal we see that it can be divided into two portions, one hard, shining and brittle, which produces the greatest amount of flame, and the other dull, black, friable, and resolvable into layers. The first is bituminous (or flame giving), and the second is anthracite. A piece of bituminous coal reduced to such thinness as to be transparent shows when examined microscopically that it consists of a series of minute bodies, more or less rounded and interlacing with one another. There are, too, some larger bodies also
Although coal bears only a faint impress of vegetable origin, it is a fact nevertheless that it is compressed and mineralised vegetation. It may well be asked, “How has such a transformation taken place?”
Geology acquaints us with the fact that the coal measures are an association of different kinds of rock. In the main we may say four different kinds. There are sandstones and shales, fireclay (or under-clay) and coal itself.
We must first note that the material, out of which rocks deposited under water have been formed, is carried down in two ways. When it is light and finely divided it can be held in suspension in the waters of the river that bears it along, but when coarse and heavy can be moved forward only by being forced along the bed of the river by the action of the water. The first makes the river muddy, and the second causes the grating sound so marked in times of flood. When the river enters the sea or lake its velocity is checked, but the matter held in suspension does not fall at once. Currents and tides in the sea and any velocity the river has been enabled to retain, spread the sediment over a large area. Should any interruption or pauses occur in the flow of material, each layer when deposited will have time to harden slightly before the next layer falls upon it. This causes a laminated structure. In this way the shales have been formed, for they are nothing but hard clay splitting up readily in thin parallel layers, and are always found deposited over wide areas.
Fig. 2.—Lycopod
The sandstones are formed of sand—or more correctly, quartz. Being a hard substance and not easily reduced to a finely divided state it cannot be carried as the materials for the shales. It is forced along the bottom of the river and on the checking of the river's velocity sinks rapidly and accumulates as a wedge shaped bank.
The underclay or fireclay, is thickly penetrated with roots and rootlets. It does not divide like the shales, but separates into irregular, lumpy masses, and is clearly the ancient soil.
Then for the coal itself. There is clear evidence that it accumulated in the place where the vegetation grew, and that that place was not far from the water's edge. It is spread in tolerably uniform seams of greater or lesser thickness over areas, embracing sometimes hundreds of square miles. The illustration (Fig. 6) shows how it is interbedded with sandstones and shales. The fireclay represents so many buried land surfaces. How is this succession of buried land surfaces and interbedding of sedimentary rocks to be accounted for? There is but one solution to the problem. The area over which the coal seam extended—the vast landlocked sea in which it was being formed—was slowly sinking. The rank and luxuriant flora of the carboniferous period has been noted in the previous article. For a space plants would spring up and flourish in maritime jungles and forests, and as they died would fall and gather in a layer of dead vegetable matter.
Fig. 3.—Sigillaria with Sigmaria Roots
Fig. 4.—Lycopod (Nat. Size)
After a time this layer would slowly sink beneath the waters of the sea. So slow and gentle would be the depression that the loose and pasty mass would not, as a rule, be disturbed. In the manner before described, sand, mud and silt would be transported from the neighbouring land to form strata of sandstone and shale. As the weight of sediment increased the vegetable matter would be gradually compressed and pass slowly into coal. A pause in the subsidence would allow the shallow sea to be silted up. Assisted perhaps by a slight elevation of the ocean bed, a new land surface would be formed. Marsh-loving plants would creep outward from the swampy shore to cover the tract with a mantle of growth. There would be a period of rapid development of the plants followed by a renewal of the downward movement, and resultant deposition of sedimentary rocks. This process would continue until the whole of our present coal measures were formed. A thick seam of coal probably marks a prolonged interval of rest when a luxuriant vegetation flourished unchecked, or the sinking was so imperceptible that generations of plants springing up on their predecessors managed to keep themselves above the water. As some of the coal beds are ten to twelve thousand feet in thickness an immeasurable period of time must be assigned for this sinking process. That it occurred in a remote age can be seen by the immense depth these beds lie buried in the earth's crust. Whole systems of strata have been formed above, entombing them beneath thousands of feet of superincumbent rock.
Fig. 6.—Curved and Cleaved Rocks
Fig. 5.—Section of Coalfield
The calm of the summer sea, the music of the tranquil brook tell little of the fearful energies that underlie the calm. It is when Nature is roused that we recognise her terrific power. When the earthquake crumbles cities into dust, when the volcano belches forth its streams of liquid fire, and the tidal wave and hurricane hurl man and his proudest works to destruction — it is then that we learn of her hidden and mighty forces. By eruptive elevation, rocks that were originally level, have been pitched up upon their ends, or bent into arches and hollows or even inverted upon themselves to lie as a gigantic fold and expose their treasures of minerals at the surface of the globe. Not the least of these treasures is our coal.
To sum up the evidence of the origin of coal. Just as the bituminous portion owes its bitumen to resin stored up in the seed vessels of plants allied to the lycopods (and perhaps the ferns), so is the anthracite made up of woody fibre more or less decomposed. Both have been profoundly modified by the action of heat and pressure. In short, the resinous matter has been bitumenised, and the woody fibre mineralised. Sunlight and sunheat of distant ages, bottled up in the tissues of vegetables, and preserved in stony chambers for periods of vast duration—this is what coal is. Surely it has its romance.
The Wealth Of The West
Busy Time on the Coast
Busy Time on the Coast
The following interesting particulars regarding the clearance of coal congestion after repairs had been effected to the Blackball Bridge which was damaged by floods recently have been forwarded by Mr. T. A. Harwood, Stationmaster at Stillwater:—A start was made at 6 a.m. on the 27th November to work empty wagons to Roa for loading to Canterbury district. The task of landing over 3,000 tons (gross tonnage) at Stillwater by Sunday night was accomplished without hitch or accident of any kind, the last load arriving at 5.45 p.m. Three engines were used to do the job. The Blackball engine worked approximately 250 empties from Blackball to Roa and brought back loaded wagons, whilst one Stillwater engine took empties from Ngahere to Blackball and loads from Blackball to Ngahere. The other Stillwater engine lifted the loads from Ngahere and marshalled them at Stillwater ready for despatch to Otira the following morning.
The feat reflects very creditably on the staff at Blackball, Ngahere, and Stillwater when it is borne in mind that the engine working on Roa incline could take up only 15 wagons and bring back the same number of loads. From Blackball to Ngahere 35 loads only could be worked on each trip, while Stillwater was faced with the problem of marshalling and stowing the 215 wagons of Paparoa coal received in a yard with a holding capacity of just over 300 wagons. In addition to these, room had to be found for 7 engines, 6 cars, 4 vans and 37 other wagons. The work was so well accomplished that by 11.30 a.m. on 29th, all loads were despatched without causing delay to any trains.
Coal in Stillwater Station Yard awaiting despatch to Canterbury District. When this photograph was taken the yard held 7 engines, 6 cars, 4 vans and 252 wagons.
“When the Canadian Pacific Railway renders service—on land or at sea—it means that close to 100,000 members of the Canadian Pacific family do their work with courtesy and efficiency so that the safety of the public and property entrusted to their care will receive the very fullest possible consideration.
There can be no greater National Service than this.”—Mr. E. W. Beatty, Chairman and President of the Canadian Pacific Railway.
ByF. Turner, Invercargill Workshops.
Bonifant
Having returned from a visit to Australia I feel that my fellow railwaymen might be interested in my impressions of the country, more particularly as regards railway matters.
On arrival in Melbourne I was impressed with the size of the Flinders Street station, which I was told is the largest railway station in the world. Two thousand electric trains and two hundred and fifty steam trains carrying two hundred and ninety thousand passengers arrive and depart daily. The facility with which this huge volume of passenger traffic is handled speaks well for the management.
At Spencer Street station, from which the interstate and other long distance trains depart, uniformed officials, with the aid of loud speakers situated on a raised platform, direct the passengers to the various trains. This method is of assistance to strangers and eliminates confusion.
A Good Load.
The carriages (which hold ten passengers in each compartment) are very comfortably appointed. At various places along the line the glass water decanters are removed and fresh filled ones put in their places. This idea is more hygienic than the filter.
Having letters of introduction to the Railway Commissioners of the various States, I visited, while in Melbourne, the Newport Workshops where I was courteously received and shown over the works.
The machine shop was the first shop visited and I was much interested in one of the latest wheel lathes doing wagon wheels of a diameter of about 3 ft. 6 in. The output averages about 24 per day. Along the same track were other wagon wheel lathes and opposite these were heavy milling and drilling machines, also a large cylinder boring machine on which was a new cylinder of 23 in. bore. Here the majority of the heavy machines were located, and a travelling crane with a jib, electrically controlled, lifted all work in and out. Passing on to near the finishing benches I next inspected the brass lathes doing boiler mountings and other brass work. One machine was making “Grecian” injectors which seemed to be a very solid type of injector, not so liable to get knocked out of order as our “Sellars.” They are fitted to the face plate of the boiler, and I was informed that they are eminently reliable. All motion work, side rods and brasses are done in this part of the shop. The split brasses, some of which are milled while others are done in sharpers, are first bored and afterwards fitted to the straps. The centre coupling pin holes are all ground out in a vertical grinding machine. The motion and Westing-house pump cylinders are done in a horizontal grinding machine, which has a range from ½ in. to 18 in. diameter. It is a splendid type of machine for any locomotive shop. I next inspected the turret lathes. They are all put down at an angle to the main shaft so that the rods of metal will go through the hollow spindle allowing the lathes to be placed close together. I then saw the Bullard boring machines which I considered were some of the most useful machines in the shop. These machines can put a cut right through axle boxes larger than any we use in 18 seconds. All classes of work and jobs for which shapers were previously used can be done more expeditiously on these machines.
A large number of axles for 20 ton wagons were being made in the shops at the time of my visit. These axles were forged in the smiths shop, then sent to the machine shop where one machine faced and centred them and another did the journals and the wheel seat. The axles were afterwards sent to the wheel press where the wheel centres were immersed in boiling water before being pressed on the axle.
One planing machine, intricate and neatly finished, attracted attention. At the end of each stroke the tool reversed and there was no lost time in travelling over the work.
In the fitting shop, engines were in all stages of repairs—the schedule method being followed. The most notable thing I saw in the erecting
Passing on to the boiler shop I saw all manner of boiler repairs being carried out. In the smiths' shop some of the hammers were steam driven while others were controlled with air. In this shop a tremendous number of drop forgings are made and the blacksmith of old is gradually being superseded by the modern methods of doing work with dies. In this shop was an electric butt welding machine which makes a very neat weld. When I saw it, it was welding 1 ¼ in. × ¾ in. material which welding can be done more quickly than in the fire. In the spring-makers' shop was another interesting machine used for taking off buckles.
The best engineering appliances that I saw were the die sinkers in the tool room. In this room are kept all the shop tools and here also are made the dies for the manufacture of malleable brass forgings. Tooth bevel pinions (about 2 ½ in. diameter), carriage door locks, plugs for Westinghouse pumps, isolating cocks, window catches, etc., are all made out of extruded metal, heated and drop forged. These dies require very accurate workmanship and plenty of patience. Some of them take about three weeks to make, but perhaps four or five hundred forgings can be made off one die. In the case of locks and window fasteners these forgings require very little fitting. Forgings of the kind are superior to cast brass in all respects.
Grey River in Flood.
Another feature which impressed me was the well laid out grounds in front of the manager's office. Through these grounds paths lead to the casualty ward where a nurse is always in attendance. Adjoining the casualty ward is the dining room where daily a ninepenny threecourse meal is served to about twelve hundred men. Almost every man is seated by 12.5 p.m. and at 12.20 p.m. most of the men have left the dining-room. After the first sitting was over I was invited to partake of dinner and can speak only in praise of the excellent meal provided. I afterwards inspected the kitchen and found it equipped with every modern labour-aiding device for cutting up meat, cleaning potatoes and washing dishes. Owing to time being limited I had to leave without inspecting the car, paint or moulding shops.
When in Sydney I visited the Eveleigh Shops and found the plant there in many respects similar to that at Newport. Surface grinding machines were more numerous at Eveleigh and one particularly attracted my attention. It had a plate beneath which were wire coils and when the current was turned on, cotters, etc., could be ground up without the necessity of bolts for holding down purposes. In this shop was an automatic Alfred Herbert stud lathe turning out 5/8 in. studs. The production was so fast that studs ran from the machine like grains of wheat from a bin.
The tool room was well equipped, and one lathe—a German machine—had an attachment like a cam which is put in the saddle rest for cutting clearance on the threads of taps and cutters after the flute had been put in. Taps and cutters made by this machine are easily operated.
In the blacksmiths shop was a three-thousand ton press, operated by hydraulic power on the down stroke and by steam on the up stroke. This combination of hydraulic and steam power makes for faster operation of the press.
In the smiths' shop there were approximately twenty “olivers” all worked by compressed air and operated by the feet. They are stoutly built machines for turning out light forgings, making eye bolts, pins, and knobs for stanchions. Just outside the smiths' shop was a rivet making machine which turns out these articles at the rate of 68 1 ½ in. rivets per minute. In these two shops a number of oil fires are used for drop forging and bolt making. Connected with the tool room are a number of gas fire furnaces which are used for tool tempering, and they are all equipped with gauges for taking the temperature which is so very essential for correct tempering.
Another noticeable feature was the extensive use made of white metal. Eccentric straps after being bored out to a diameter greater by ½ in. than is required are “run up” with this metal. They are then bored to suit the pulleys. Axle boxes which have been machined to the correct size, have the necessary tin liners fitted before the metal is run on. There is no waste metal in this method, all cuttings going back to the foundry for
I also had the pleasure of a hurried visit to the Westinghouse works at Concord, over which I was conducted by Mr. Shelley, Chief Engineer. We started in the pattern shop and went to the moulding shop, where a large amount of moulding is done with compressed air instead of the old style of hand ramming. In the machine shop most of the plant is specialised for its particular work. The finished product is tested under working conditions and those parts (triples, brake cylinders, pumps, etc.) which have fulfilled the conditions of the test are sent to the store. Striking rods and valves are all tested with gauges before being sent into the store.
In Australia some of the locomotives carry two Westinghouse pumps which can be worked independently of each other. While in the Westinghouse brake shop I was shown a compound pump in course of construction which is to be given a trial. It has, I understand, 8 in. and 14 in. steam cylinders.
Manga-o-Rewa Valley and Town of
My trip was very interesting and highly instructive. I was well repaid by an increased vision of practices in the leading workshops of Australia.
Little Things.
He rang in a little sooner than his fellows in the shop; he remained a little longer when the whistle ordered “stop.” He worked a little harder and talked a little less; he made every little movement his efficiency express. He saved a little money in a hundred little ways; he banked a little extra when he got a little raise. A little working model took his little leisure time; he wrought each little part of it with patience most sublime. Now it's very little wonder that he murmurs with a smile as he clips his little coupons: “Are the little things worth while?”
Boston Transcript.
Sovereings—Continued.
King George II. (1727–1760.)
During this reign Britain was for long periods concerned in war. The Spaniards claimed and used the right of searching English vessels at sea and ill-used the English sailors. This led to an unsuccessful war with Spain.
In 1743 France, Prussia and Bavaria, attempted to obtain and share Austria and her possessions. Britain, alarmed at the union of these powers, assisted Austria in the war of the Austrian Succession, and George II. personally successfully conducted his troops—the last occasion on which an English sovereign has been exposed to the fire of an enemy.
In North America the French had established colonies in Louisiana and Canada. General Wolfe by the memorable capture of Quebec, in which struggle he was mortally wounded, secured Canada for England.
The Seven Years' War was ended by the First Treaty of Paris which provided, among other things that England should retain Canada, some important isles in the West Indies, and all her conquests in India except Pondicherry.
George II., distinguished as a soldier and leader of men, was a popular king. Although he displayed great interest in his continental possessions he was keen on the advancement of England.
.George Iii
1760–1820.
Through the energy and foresight of Pitt, Britain had become the first nation of the world.
The loss of the American colonies due to the imposition of taxes without the consent of the colonists was a noteworthy event of this reign. Representatives of the various American States drew up and passed the “Declaration of Independence,” which, after much fighting, the Motherland was compelled to accept.
In consequence of the alliance of France with the United States, England in 1778 renewed war with France.
To prevent England from searching vessels for goods belonging to an enemy, Russia, Sweden and Denmark entered into an alliance. Later Prussia, Holland, France and Spain joined the League. Britain stood alone, opposed by all Europe.
Rodney won two notable naval battles—one over the Spanish off Cape St. Vincent, the other over the French off St. Lucia in the West Indies—thus greatly assisting in bringing about peace.
King George
Iii.
Again in 1793, following the French Revolution, considered to be the greatest event of the 18th century, Britain, on account of a decree of the French Convention offering help to all countries desirous of overthrowing their Kings, declared war on France. The Dutch joined the French, and the Cape of Good Hope, Ceylon, and Malacca were seized by the English. Spain opposed Britain, but at the naval battle of Cape St. Vincent, Admiral Sir John Jervis and Commodore Nelson inflicted a crushing defeat on the Spanish. By three smashing naval victories—at Camperdown (1797), the Nile (1798), and Trafalgar (1805)— Nelson shattered Napoleon's hopes of successfully invading England.
Queen Victoria in 1842.
Napoleon declared Britain to be in a state of blockade and forbade trade with her. This fact together with the seizure by Napoleon of the Crown of Spain for his brother led to the Peninsular War, which
After twenty-two years' war forty years of peace followed. In 1801 the Act for the Union of Great Britain and Ireland was passed. Its main provisions were (1)
Through the efforts of several reformers, among whom Wilberforce and Thurlow were prominent, the Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade was passed by Parliament in 1807. It was not until 1833 that slavery in all British Dominions was abolished.
Two other memorable events were the use of gas for street lighting and the launching on the Clyde of the “Comet,” a steam vessel built by Henry Bell.
Geogre Iii. was a good man and a wise King. On coming to the throne he declared that he “gloried in the name of Briton,” and his highest object in life was to improve the land over which he had the honour to rule.
Queen Victoria, 1837–1901.
“In a Palace in a garden—not in a haughty keep, proud with the fame but dark with the violence of ages; not in a regal pile, bright with the splendour but soiled with the intrigues of courts and factions — in a palace in a garden, meet scene for youth and innocence and beauty — came a voice that told the maiden she must ascend her throne.
“Hush! the portals open; she comes; the silence is as deep as that of a noontide forest. Attended for a moment by her royal mother and the ladies of her court, who bow and then retire, Victoria ascends her throne; a girl alone, and for the first time amid an assemblage of men.
“In a sweet and thrilling voice, and with a composed mien, which indicates rather the absorbing sense of august duty than an absence of emotion, the Queen announces her accession to the throne of her ancestors and her humble hope that Divine Providence will guard over the fulfilment of her lofty trust.
“The prelates and captains and chief men of her realm then advance to the throne, and kneeling before her, pledge their troth and take the sacred oaths of allegiance and supremacy.
“Allegiance to one who rules over the land that the great Macedonian could not conquei and over a Continent of which even Columbus never dreamed. To the Queen of every sea and of nations in every zone. Fair and serene, she has the beauty of the Saxon. Will it be her proud destiny at length to bear relief to
So wrote Disraeli of the coronation of Queen Victoria, the niece of King William Iv., when at the age of 18 she undertook her royal responsibilities. In her sixty-four years of reign Victoria witnessed remarkable developments in her mighty Empire.
Preceding and subsequent to her ascension to the throne, industrial methods were undergoing great changes. The ingenious devices and labour-aiding appliances then invented explain the vast cities, the huge factories and the complicated machinery of our day.
The Queen married in 1840 Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg, the author of the scheme for the first of all Great Exhibitions. Products of industries of all nations were in 1851 exhibited in the Crystal Palace designed for the purpose by
Important Wars.—From 1853 to 1856 the Crimean War, arising from a dispute between Russia and Turkey regarding the guardianship of the Holy Places at Jerusalem and the aggressive designs of the Czar on Turkey, occupied the attention of Britain. The Czar attempted to secure British neutrality, but his offers were rejected, and Britain, allied with France, opposed Russia. Most of the fighting took place in the Crimea. The more famous battles were Alma, Balaclava, made memorable by the charge of the Light Brigade; Inkerman, and the assault of Malakoff Tower. The allied forces won all these battles, and the war.
Following the Indian Mutiny, it was arranged that the power of the East India Company should be transferred to the Crown.
South Africa was the scene of the Boer War of 1899–1900. The suspicion among the Boers that the British Government had been associated with a lawless attack on their freedom, and the ambitions of President Kruger to obtain absolute control over South Africa were the main causes of the war. When the Queen perceived that peace, for which she always strove, could not in this case be maintained, she used her influence with her ministers to conduct the war with promptitude and effect.
On 22nd January, 1901, the great and beloved Queen died at the age of 81 years. Throughout the reign, by exercising her outstanding qualities of courage, sincerity and discretion, she had filled her difficult position with dignity and honour, and her death was the occasion of universal mourning.
King Edward
Vii. 1901–1910.
On the death of Queen Victoria, her second child and eldest son became King, as Edward Vii. Edward had been educated at Oxford and Cambridge Universities and much care had been taken to train him for his royal post. On ascending the throne His Majesty stated that “he would carry out the duties of kingly office after the noble example of his illustrious mother.”
During his reign great strides were made in science and invention. In aviation such progress had been made that navigable airships were flown in 1909, whilst further improvements in steam locomotives and steamships greatly assisted trade by reducing the time required for transport between the principal centres.
On 6th May, 1910, Edward the Peacemaker passed away. In the Royal Courts of Europe where his knowledge of French and German stood him in good stead, he had enjoyed remarkable popularity which was of great assistance in the maintenance of cordial relationship between the Powers. His courageous spirit, his admiration for every manifestation of heroism, his philanthropic activities, his faculty for business, and his remarkable memory, not only won the affection of the Empire over which he ruled, but made him eminently suitable to represent the nation abroad.
George V.
1910.
George Fifth, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, Ireland, and the British Dominions beyond the seas; King, Defender of the Faith, and Emperor of India, is the second son of the late King Edward Vii. He was born at Marlborough House in 1865, and at the age of 12 became a naval cadet. Always a keen sailor, his long practical naval experience has been supplemented by the study of hundreds of volumes on naval subjects. King George was regarded by Lord Fisher as the best informed sailor in Europe. “Any idea that while he served in the Navy he was ‘let down gently’ would be erroneous. When his ship was on a North American and West Indian station an American sought permission to look over the vessel. This was granted, and a young officer who bore unmistakable evidence of having recently taken part in coaling operations showed him round. On returning to the shore in a pinnace the visitor expressed, himself as delighted, but regretted that he had not seen the Prince, ‘But you have been talking to him for the best part of an hour!' retorted the officer in charge. ‘Was that the Prince?' said the American in profound astonishment. ‘No wonder he laughed so heartily when I asked him if they kept His Royal Highness in cotton-wool while the coaldust was flying about”'—Wheeler.
King George V
It was intended that H.R.H. should remain in the naval service, but the death of his elder brother transformed him from a promising naval commander to Heir-Presumptive. He then proceeded to thoroughly study Imperial questions, and when in 1893 he became Duke of York and took his seat in the House of Lords he received more pleasure from Parliamentary debates than from Court functions.
In 1893 George married Princess Mary of Teck and in 1901, as the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York, they visited Australia (where they opened the first Commonwealth Parliament), New Zealand, South Africa, Canada and Newfoundland. On the death of his father in 1910, he became King, as George V. At the end of 1911 he visited India, where he was welcomed with enthusiasm. He was the first British sovereign to visit that country.
The great World War (1914–1918), caused through German hostility to Great Britain and desire for world power, and the “Near East” troubles, of which we all retain vivid memories, was the greatest upheaval of modern times. King George played a worthy part in attempting to obviate the struggle. The failure of his efforts cannot be attributed to any lack of foresight. On several occasions the King personally visited the troops in France, and discussed the situation with the Allied generals.
The patriotic feeling manifest throughout the Empire at the outbreak of the war convincingly proved that Britain's Dominions still remained loyal to the Homeland. “At the outbreak of the war the Germans expected all the Boers to rise against Britain, but they were disappointed. The Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa, General Botha, who had been the best Boer General in the Boer war, not only frustrated the uprising of his old comrades, but conquered German South West Africa for the British Empire. General Smuts, another Boer commander, was prominent in the Peace Conference and showed much wisdom in his recommendations.” All the other Dominions gave their best in the great struggle for freedom.
King George takes particularly keen interest in matters affecting the Empire and his foresight and sound judgment have done and are doing much to consolidate his great Common wealth of Free Nations. Practical schemes for social reform have always had the King's unqualified sympathy.
Wellington District Notes
(Contributed)
It is with the greatest regret that I have to record the death on the 22nd December, at his residence Lower Hutt, of
The late Mr. A. N.
Longton and his little son.
The late Mr. Longton took a keen interest in the affairs of the Railway Officers' Institute, being an active member of the Wellington branch, and a member of the Branch Committee. When the Executive Committee and the Headquarters of this Institute were transferred to Wellington, Mr. Longton was elected a member of that committee. He was also a member of the North Island Railway Appeal Board, being elected in 1920, and capably filled the position for a term of three years.
Although suffering from ill-health through a period of many years, nothing could daunt his cheerful courage and manly optimism. In his death the Railways lose a fine officer and the community a worthy citizen.
The funeral of the deceased took place on 24th December at Karori Cemetery. Four of his fellow officers acted as pall-bearers, and all branches of the service were represented.
* * *
Another Railwayman Passes.
The death was recently announced at Auckland of Mr. Frederick Berry, an ex-railway enginedriver. The late Mr. Berry who was well known to the older members of the service, was for many years a senior engineman, and up to the time of his retirement on superannuation a few years ago, had a record of complete freedom from accidents of any kind. He emigrated from England after service on the Great Eastern Railway, and was one of the earliest drivers in Canterbury, being later transferred to the North Island.
* * *
The local Railway cricket team is continuing to do well in the Junior Championship, and is now leading by a clear 4 points. In its first match with Kilbirnie, Railway disposed of its opponents for 113, and 76, replying with 318 runs for 6 wickets for its one visit to the crease. The chief scorers for the Railway were: Fay 99, Gill 88, Knapp 29, Gray 19, Hoare 19, McLeod 10. During the New Year holidays, the local team visited Wanganui, and tried conclusions with the Railway representatives of that town. Wellington won a close game by 12 runs on the first innings, the scores being: Wellington 126, Wanganui 114. The visiting players, who were billeted by members of the Wanganui team, had a most enjoyable trip, and all speak in glowing terms of the hospitality accorded them.
(ByS. E. , M.Inst.T., Operating and Equipment Assistant, N.Z.R.)
Fay
Gravity Shunting Yards—(Continued)
(
Part VIII.—Hump Shunting.)As shown in illustration No. 2 in my previous article, there are two main types of humps. As regards the engineering features of the grades no two yards are alike, and therefore no hard and fast rule can be laid down as to the most effective grade. Each yard must be built according to the types of wagons, weather conditions (including temperature and prevailing winds), general lay-out of points and crossings, and the distance wagons have to run to clearance points after leaving the hump.
In the colder climates such as are met with in America, either two humps are provided or the hump has a jacking device which provides a steeper grade when necessary.
Electric Switch Control Board in “Hump” Box, Feltham Yard, England.
With the English type of wagon it is generally recognised that the grade should be such that the speed of a wagon, after leaving the top of the hump does not exceed 10 to 12 miles per hour. With the introduction of mechanical track brakes this speed can be increased with safety, as any undue speed can be checked by these brakes.
The hump yard is, in effect, a flat yard with an artificial hump on the shunting leg so arranged that shunting engines instead of “setting back” at speed, stopping suddenly, and then pulling ahead again, merely push the wagons over the hump at a steady speed of about two miles per hour. As soon as the detached wagons arrive at the top of the hump they fall away from the train. Providing the grade is correctly set and the speed of the train is suitably adjusted, a train of 70 wagons or so can be passed over the hump and the wagons marshalled into their respective roads without the engine coming to rest.
It can be seen that the advantages of using an artificial hump in place of a flat shunting neck are considerable. Firstly the average time to make one cut or shunt in a modern hump yard with mechanical points operation is approximately 22 seconds, that is to say, a 70 wagon train with 50 cuts can be split up in 18 to 20 minutes. Contrast this with, at the very least, one hour for the same work with flat shunting. I have in mind a yard where, with the construction of a hump, the same traffic is handled with a reduction of 13 engine hours each day. In New Zealand this would represent a saving of over £2,000 per annum. I can imagine some of my shunter readers wishing they had a few humps in some of our shunting yards on a busy night.
Secondly, there is a considerable reduction in the cost of operating the locomotive as the work performed is much less, and the wear and tear on the brakes and draw gear is reduced to a minimum.
Thirdly, as explained in regard to “all gravity” yards, the damage to rolling stock and freight by constant jerking is eliminated.
Fourthly, the shunting staff can be greatly reduced; in fact, with electrical points operation and mechanical track brakes, the work of the ground staff on the hump is confined solely to receiving incoming trains preparatory to passing them over the hump, the actual movement on the hump being controlled by one signalman and the track brake operators located in towers at convenient points.
This refers to the most modern yard. The usual. method is for brakemen to be stationed in the yard to steady the wagons as they run down from the hump. In America as many as 40 men are required at one time for this service, and a special track is provided to bring them back to the hump on motor jiggers. As previously explained, this is due to the brakes being on the top of wagons, necessitating men riding with each cut.
Taking everything into consideration it can be seen that hump shunting offers very considerable advantages over flat shunting in large yards. The hump method is, however, only considered economical when handling 500 or more wagons per day.
Points are Electrically Controlled.
On the arrival of a train in the reception sidings the engine is released and sent to the loco. depot or to the departure sidings as the case may be. Shunters uncouple the wagons where cuts are to be made and chalk either on the front of the leading wagon of each cut or on the back of the last wagon (according to the method of working) the number of the Toad to which the cut is to be shunted. The “pusher” or hump shunting engine then backs on to the train and, at a given signal, proceeds to push the wagons over the hump at a speed of about 2 miles per hour. The signalman operating the points by means of push buttons—as shown in Illustration No. 1—presses the button corresponding to the number of the road he sees chalked on the wagons as they pass him. Some railways prefer the number on the trailing ends of the wagons to ensure that the signalman is always looking towards the yard.
In the event of wagons not running down and thereby fouling other roads an indication by means of tract circuiting is immediately given to the signalman and he can stop the hump engine by means of Claxon horns, by loud speakers situated at various convenient points, or by electrically operated signals giving different aspects indicating go slow, stop, go ahead, etc.
Feltham Marshalling Yard, England. Wagons running from the “Hump.”
The last wagons having passed over the hump, the hump engine either returns back over the road upon which it has been working to the other end of the reception siding—preparatory to pushing another train over the hump—or it continues over the hump in order to “trim” the marshalling sidings—that is to say, to close up all the wagons in each road and thus make room for more.
In the American yards where car retarders are now increasingly used, the operators receive shunting lists which show them the nature of each cut, whether loaded or empty wagons, the gross load, and the road into which they are to be shunted. This enables the operators to adjust their brakes to a nicety and with practice the bringing of a “cut” to a standstill against other wagons without shock is reduced to a fine art. In England the practice up to the present has been to use the brakesman to drop the brakes as required. In some yards brake shoes are used. These are placed on the rails and carried along by the wagons. As a stopping device they are extraordinarily effective. In the latest hump yard in France (at Lille) there is installed a very ingenious device and one much less costly than track retarders. This is, in effect, a brake-shoe, but
As an illustration of the economics to be effected by hump shunting the case of Wath, England, is of interest. This yard handles with two engines, each working 24 hours per day, 13,000 wagons per month over two humps, one for the “up” traffic and one for the “down.” As many as 6,000 wagons have passed over the two humps in one day. The shunting staff for each hump consists of three head shunters, twelve shunters, three signalmen and three inspectors. The multiples of three indicate that the yard works 24 hours (three eight hour shifts). The marshalling is of such a nature that all work is done from the hump end of each yard. No sorting or making up of trains is required. This therefore serves as a good instance of the output per man and per engine when shunting with the aid of a hump.
Elevation
Signal Cabin, Middleton Yard, Canterbury, South Island.
Wireless.
A correspondent, writing from Toronto, draws attention to the great strides made by radio both in Canada and the United States. “The politicians of the latter,” he states, “keep in touch with distant supporters, and the isolated Canadian settler or miner retains contact with the world. The Governments of both countries control and support the business. Every kind of musical programme, sermons, and addresses are put on the air C.F.C.A. (The Toronto Star) picks up and broadeasts communications from all sorts of distant places (I have not heard of any from New Zealand yet) as well as keeping a regular programme locally.”
Royal Tour Of New Zealand.
1 Masterton 2 Picton 3 Wellington 4 Queenstown (Lake Wakatipu) 5 Dunedin
Britain's Pageant Of Prose And Poetry.
Though it may be outwith the ordinary man's reach to span the width, and plumb the depth, of the knowledge of the origins and developments of our Saxon speech, of its thought and literary expression, he can, at least, explore the fringes of our wondrous heritage of English literature. If the desire be there, one has but to begin his study to find that desire grow and, captivated by its literary charm, refuse to be satisfied until he has gained a sympathetic understanding of the genius of our race. The books that tell the story of English literature are already legion, and every publishing season sees many more added to the list. The close of last year saw quite a number of important additions. The subject is so entrancing that it will always find willing pens, more or less competent, to dilate upon its charms, if for no other reason than that which our English Bible has made familiar to us all—out of the fulness of the heart the mouth speaketh.
Chaucer.
The study of English literature may seem uninviting, just as the game of golf seems silly to the uninitiated, but once entered upon in earnest, though the task be hard, the hazards many, the bunkers great and fortune often lay one a “stimie,” if one persevere he soon knows that delight that “physics pain.” The further he advances the more eager he becomes to push on to “fresh woods and pastures new,” to cull the flowers of poesy and prose that there await his coming, and, though he pluck them all, will leave none the less for those who follow after. Three of the most recent books, books that no true bookman can afford to be without, are “Authors Dead and Living,” By F. L. Lucas (Chatto and Windus), “Studies Green and Gray,” by
The early literature, like the early history of the mingled peoples now known as the British race, exists only in fragmentary form, and from it we had learned but little, had it not been that modern science came to our aid and with its wizard wand made dead things speak. The old traditions that had survived the centuries were undated and their origin unknown. All that could be said was that such things were “a long time ago.” Then the Questers came—men whose whole lives were notes of interrogation. Old foundations of ancient ruins were digged about and tools and other things discovered of which at first they could but guess the use. Tombs were opened and, lo, in the hands of the dead were golden coins. These coins bore the images of rulers and gave the dates of their rule. Thus the dead were made to tell the secret of the past. Ancient parchments, after many years of patient toil, were deciphered and, as has been said, out of them rose songs, music, love-ditties and war-cries—phrases so full of life that the living hearts of to-day have been stirred by them; words with so much colour in them that the landscape so familiar to the ancient Kelt and Briton reappeared before our eyes!
Chaucer is the accepted “Father of English Poesy.” Much as I love Chaucer, I reserve such honourable distinction not for him, but for the Bard who, many years earlier, gave us “Beowulf.” And the mention of “Beowulf” prompts the query: Why is it that even many learned Britons neglect the ancient culture of our country and people, and know little or nothing of its early literature, in which they ought to take a national pride? How different is the attitude of our recent enemies, the Germans, to the old warrior poems. In Germany there is scarcely a home without its copy of the “Edda.” A new translation of this work was recently published, and a new edition was called for every month for two years. I wonder how many Britons have read
Or turn to the domain of prose and much the same thing meets us there. How many who read regularly ever think of taking a course of Richardson, Fielding, Smollett or Sterne? And is it not equally true that a great number of our so-called bookish persons have not read Lytton, Disraeli, ay, and even Thackeray? But though we may pass the father of English poetry, be he the bard of “Beowulf” or Chaucer, we cannot, an we would, pass the father of the English novel—Defoe. He, with Scott and Dickens, will last when many newer and “louder” writers of to-day are silenced for ever. Most of you who are mature in years, and fond of good literature, know your Scott and your Dickens, and after them, your Thackeray. I wonder how many of you know Meredith? Meredith is not as popular as he should be, nor nearly as popular as he will be. He is not altogether easy to read. His novels are novels each with a purpose. Some unthinkingly condemn this type of romance, quite
Robert Burns.
Of our poets it is much easier to write. Dramatic poetry culminated in Shakespeare (Bacon?) in England, and lyrical poetry in Burns in Scotland. Their works are well known to everybody who is anybody. Indeed, a volume of Shakespeare may be said to have become a collection of “familiar quotations,” while Burns' songs, not only in his native country, but throughout the world, are “familiar as household words.” There are other poets aplenty, who give much pleasure to the readers of verse and the singers of songs; but these two have been enthroned as Kings of Song, each in his own domain, and the human mind cannot conceive of a time when they will be forced to abdicate for two more worthy of the love and homage of the people.
But Britain's pageant of poesy and prose numbers in its longdrawn lines a multitude of other writers who hold front rank in other domains than those of song and story. Indeed,
‘Twould take near-hand a page o’ type
Did I but name them all!
I must ask you, therefore, to be satisfied with the names of a few. John Trevisa (1387) and
In the scientific world, also, English literature provides a galaxy of names unsurpassed in number and genius by any other single nation. Foremost among these are Darwin, Spencer, and Huxley of the old brigade, while among present day sociological and scientific writers the first to rise to our lips are the names of J. M. Robertson, Joseph MeCabe,
I should like to quote a number of such gems of song as have become endeared to the “common people,” but space is limited. As things are, the great treasures of literature are hidden wealth to the average worker. This is greatly his own fault. He is, in too many cases, content to sit and, at best, watch the pageant pass, and others do not even that. Many, even among the workers themselves, think that such things and the culture they transmit to all who pay them court, are not for men who have to earn their living at hard and exacting toil. There never was a greater falsehood, or a more hurtful and unfounded folly. It is the worker, whether of brain or brawn, who needs most, and who is best entitled to the enjoyment of the best our poets and thinkers have given us. It was the happy realisation of this that made
“Shakespeare,” said Ingersoll, “exceeded all the sons of men in the splendour of his imagination. To him the whole world paid tribute, and nature poured her trensures at his feet. In him all races lived again, and even those to be were pictured in his brain.
Shakespeare was an intellectual ocean, whose waves touched all the shores of thought; within which were all the tides and waves of destiny and will; over which swept all the storms of fate, ambition and revenge; upon which fell the gloom and darkness of despair and death and all the sunlight of content and love, and within which was the inverted sky lit with the eternal stars—an intellectual ocean—towards which all rivers ran, and from which now the isles and continents of thought receive their dew and rain.”
Opening Function.
The Acting Minister of Railways (the
Mr. J. Mason, Member of the Board of Management, in welcoming the Honourable Minister, expressed, on behalf of the Board, Divisional Superintendents, and District Officers, their pleasure that Mr. Rolleston had been able to spare time from the cares of office to attend their meeting for the purpose of seeing something of the manner in which conference matters were handled. He was sure they all appreciated the attention and sympathetic consideration given by Mr. Rolleston to all railway matters brought before, him whilst acting as Minister of Railways during the absence of the Prime Minister, and were pleased that he had been able officially to open the conference.
Mr. Rolleston, in his opening remarks, expressed thanks for the very kind introduction and said how pleased he was to meet them all personally before the general work of the conference was undertaken. He regretted very much the absence of Mr. Harris, who, as General Superintendent of Transportation, had presided over their deliberations in previous years, and felt sure every member of the conference would deeply sympathise in the misfortune which had overtaken him.
Regarding railway administration, Mr. Rolleston reminded them that he was only filling the place temporarily, and that it was therefore impossible for him to address them on points of policy. He would consequently confine himself to a few general and personal remarks. He wished first to express thanks for the good work they had done in building up the service to the point which it had now reached. He recognised that with those present had rested responsibility for the direction and control of an important part of the functioning of the railways, and to them, therefore, must be given much of the credit for the success achieved.
For many years the careful, reliable, and efficient work of the District Managers, although unadvertised, had served to maintain the high reputation of the Department, but much of this good work had passed unnoticed. Now, however, there was a changed attitude on the part of the public towards the railways. Possibly the capacity exhibited in handling the business arising out of the Dunedin Exhibition, and in dealing with the great rail traffic of this year's summer season had been partly responsible for, in some degree, acquainting the public with the silent, accurate work performed behind the scenes by those responsible for the efficiency of railway operations. Without their present high state of efficiency in organisation and operation it would be impossible to deal with the great and increasing volume of business which the railways were called upon to transact.
The Government recognised that the railways were handicapped in some places by such things as the insufficiency of yard accommodation
Makatote Viaduct, Main Trunk Line, N.Z.
Continuing, Mr. Rolleston said, “I wish to take this opportunity of thanking you for the loyal help given in carrying on the work of the Department during the few months of the Prime Minister's absence. This assistance has been very much appreciated, and I am indebted to you for the fact that I will now be able to hand back the Railways in as good a state as when they were taken over. I shall always remember with pleasure the experience gained during my association with the Railway Department. I trust the conference will be a success, and to use the language employed in the opening of Parliamentary Committees, desire to express the strong hope that Divine providence may direct your work and that real benefit to the whole service may result from your deliberations.” (Applause.)
Mr. Mason then thanked the Acting Minister for his appreciative references to the way in which Divisional Superintendents and District Managers had performed the heavy duties entailed in the management of their Divisions and Districts. Mr Rolleston's remarks he felt sure would stimulate officers to even greater efforts, if that were possible, in raising the standard of service rendered by the Railways to the people of the Dominion. They all deeply appreciated the Hon. Minister's kindly remembrance of Mr. Harris in his present serious illness, and it was the sincere hope and wish of all present that he might be speedily restored to health.
(
Photo N.Z. Publicity Dept.)
Milford Sound, South Island, N.Z.
Addressing the Executive officers, Mr. Mason said he felt sure they would devote themselves to the assessment of staff qualifications and positions in the same thorough manner as in previous years, and that they would endeavour to hold the scales of justice evenly in weighing up the merits of the respective officers, for they all knew how much the accuracy of their judgments and decisions meant to every man employed.
In their hands lay to a great extent the possibility of maintaining a contented service. He hoped they would be very successful in carrying through the work before them.
[On 31st January, whilst the Conference was still sitting, word was received that Mr. Harris had passed away. The District Officers present passed a resolution of condolence with the relatives, and adjourned out of respect to the memory of their late leader.]
Empire Builders
Sir Francis Drake.
The daring spirit of Elizabeth's great admiral, Sir Francis Drake (1540–1596), as revealed by his voyages of discovery and by his success as a naval commander, justifies his starring as the hero of many popular legends. On many occasions he sailed with expeditions to the West Indies, but his greatest achievement was the circumnavigation of the globe. In 1577 he sailed from Plymouth across the Atlantic, along the coast of South America, through the Straits of Magellan, to Valparaiso, across the Pacific to the Indian Archipelago, and around the Cape of Good Hope to England, where he arrived in 1580. He was the first Englishman to sail around the world, and on his return was knighted by Queen Elizabeth.
Innumerable Spanish ships suffered his attacks, and for the sake of their spoil many Spanish towns on both the American continents were plundered as was the custom of the age.
Sir Francis Drake.
In the battle with the Spanish Armada Drake commanded one of the three divisons of the English fleet sent to intercept the invaders. He was continuously in the thick of the fighting, and when victory was achieved he pursued the conquered, ambitiously named “Invincible” Armada of Philip of Spain, to the north of Scotland.
On two occasions he sat in the English Parliament, but the sea was his home and on the sea he died.
Lord Nelson.
When Lord Hood attempted to capture Corsica in 1794 Nelson successfully commanded the landing parties of seamen and marines at Bastia and Calvi. It was in the struggle at Calvi that he lost the sight of his right eye. Two years later he was promoted to commodore and was engaged in preventing the coastal trade of France. At the battle of Cape St. Vincent where the combined fleets of Spain and France were defeated, Nelson performed meritorious service, in recognition of which he was made a Knight Bachelor and appointed rear-admiral. While attempting the capture of a treasure ship at
In 1798 he was deputed to attempt the annihilation or capture of the French fleet which had put to sea. He eventually discovered it at anchor in Aboukir Bay, where the famous Battle of the Nile, was fought.
When Naples fell to the French in 1799, Nelson restored the city to the Neapolitans and again established civil power. He was then created Duke of Bronte in Sicily.
Early in 1801 he was promoted to viceadmiral and sent in command of an attack on Copenhagen, where the Danish fleet was destroyed. On his return home he was created Viscount Nelson.
His final triumph was defeat of the French fleet at the memorable battle of Trafalgar, on 21st October, 1805, in which the hero himself was mortally wounded. It was prior to this battle that he hoisted the famous signal, “This day England expects every man to do his duty.” With princely honours, and amid the tears of a mourning nation, the famous hero was laid to rest in St. Paul's Cathedral.
Lord Nelson.
Viscount Jellicoe of Scapa.
Viscount Jellicoe of Scapa was born on 5th December, 1859, and entered the service of the British Navy when thirteen years of age. He served in the Egyptian War of 1882 after which he passed with honours his examination for a lieutenancy. In 1910–1911 he became Commander of the Atlantic Fleet, and in 1911–1912 was Commander of the Second Home Fleet. During the following two years he occupied the position of second Sea Lord at the Admiralty. On the outbreak of the Great War he was placed in command of the Grand Fleet—perhaps the most responsible position in the world at that time. As Commander of the Grand Fleet during the Battle of Jutland he inflicted such punishment on the German Fleet that the latter never again ventured out to battle on the high seas. Replying to congratulations on the results of the battle he said: “I expected a great deal from the fleet, and it did all that I expected. But for our bad luck in getting misty weather I believe we should have finished the business.”
Viscount Jellicoe subsequently became Governor-General of New Zealand. He discharged the functions of that high office with a democratic understanding which won for him a warm place in the hearts of the people of the Dominion.
The Duke of Wellington.
The Hon.
.Earl Kitchener
Lord Bacon.
“He sounds a trumpet call to a new and universal effort of free and circumspect intelligence” says a present day critic (The Rt. Hon. J. M. Robertson) of Lord Bacon. Few names stand higher in the intellectual annals of the world than the name of this great Englishman who was born at York House, in the Strand on 22nd January, 1561. At Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was educated, Bacon absorbed the learning of his age with extraordinary facility and became deeply versed in classical literature. After filling with distinction many important positions in the government of his day, he retired to his country seat and devoted himself more seriously to philosophy. It was his great merit to introduce the method of inductive reasoning into science— the method which has been so prolific of fundamental results in the fields of discovery and invention. The life's work of this great Englishman (though marred by charges of bribery proved against him, and which cannot be condoned), has placed not only our Empire but the whole world under a heavy debt of gratitude. “Besides the unparalleled services which science received from him,” says one biographer, “to his original genius one may directly ascribe many, if not most, of those large improvements in the arts of life which have raised this nation to the highest place among the countries of the world.”
Lord Bacon.
On handing over the statute of
Like Newton before him, it was Darwin's privilege to discover a great law of Nature. After twenty years of laborious work he found that “Selection was the keystone of man's success in making useful races of animals and plants.”
.Adam Smith
The subjects of every State ought to contribute towards the support of the Government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities, that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the State.
The name and life's work of
Stephenson's first locomotive was tried out in 1814 with results that fulfilled his best expectations. The great engineer's next mechanical triumph was to build his famous “Rocket” and to give a practical demonstration to the England of a hundred years ago of the immense possibilities of railway transportation. The “Rocket” in 1825 drew its appointed load of passengers over the Stockton and Darlington railway to the shouts and cheers of the multitude. Stephenson's success was complete. He had enriched the world with an idea of extraordinary utility; the era of railways had commenced, enabling man to simplify his existence and to spread civilisation, commerce and culture throughout the world. Stephenson occupied the highest positions in connection with the development of Britain's early railways, and was the first president of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. He died at Chesterfield in 1879.
Lord Kelvin.
Lord Kelvin.
Royal Tour Of New Zealand.1 Invercargill (Gardens) 2 Lake Wanaka 3 The Bluff (Southernmost Port Of South Island)
Near the Summit, Rimutaka Incline, Wairarapa Line, North Island.
Greetings To His Railway Staff.
The Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates, Prime Minister and Minister of Railways, following his return from the Imperial Conference, has kindly supplied, for publication in this magazine, a personal message to the Staff of the New Zealand Railways.
After five months absence, during which, as representatives of the Dominion, we gratefully acknowledge having been treated with the most endearing hospitality and open-hearted kindliness in Britain, France, the United States, and Canada, I must say that I am glad to be back with you in this, the most blessed of all countries.
Although Imperial Affairs chiefly occupied my attention in the Homeland, I took the opportunity presented both there and in America for studying railway questions, and return with the benefit which personal insight gives into the methods and services of other systems. The personal knowledge gained I hope to be able to use for the advancement of the railways here.
One result of what I have seen of the whole-hearted co-operation and camaraderie amongst the staffs employed by some of the most successful railways, has been more than ever to convince me that Trades Unionism in the Railways of New Zealand, if it is to continue to do good for the men in whose interests it has been adopted, must encourage, and assist in the introduction of the latest successful methods of management and production. No good has ever resulted from obstructive criticism.
This is the get-together age. The practice of sweet reasonableness effects, and will continue to effect, far more all-round good than could possibly be accomplished if the management were continually subjected to a barrage of objections from the representatives of the men employed to carry out instructions. In any competitive enterprise, if there is disagreement in one firm between the men and the management, the competitors get the trade.
In a State business there is a chance that the Unions, having in mind the possibility of political reprisals, may attempt to wield undue power. This can prove only detrimental to the men whom it is intended to benefit. Political action cannot raise real wages. More and better production per man can and will.
Observation overseas has strongly confirmed my belief that neither parties, nor bounties, neither tariffs nor doles, can bring prosperity. This comes from one thing only—the application of brains and industry to all productive operations. By such means alone can the Railways achieve success against competition. The rule applies equally to private business as to a State concern. No industrial gain can follow from long-distance sniping between the men and the management. It is better to ground arms, and come together in goodwill, determined to produce better results by consultation and co-operative action.
Method, system, arrangement; the elimination of waste in effort and material; these do not make work harder, but they do make it pleasanter and more remunerative. It is in effecting improvements in these directions that the co-operation of the Staff—in their own interests as well as in those of the country—is confidently anticipated.
Following the experience gained whilst holding the portfolio of Railways during the past four years, the first-hand information now obtained overseas has, I must confess, broadened my own outlook, and I trust by the judicious introduction of reforms in various directions, that this may prove of benefit both to the men who work, and the public who use, our national transport system.