Contents
N.Z. Railways Magazine
Owing to the large number of the second year's magazines sent in for binding, there may be more delay in completing the work, but the volumes will be distributed to members at the earliest opportunity. The above information is given to relieve members of any anxiety regarding the receipt of copies they have forwarded to be dealt with in this way.
The New Zealand
Railways
Magazine
Railways
Magazine
Registered for transmission by Post as a Newspaper
Published by the
New Zealand Government Railways Department
“”
For Better Service.Circulation over 21,000
Vol. 3. No. 4.
Wellington,
New Zealand
August1, 1928
The Age of Ease
If the period of the French Revolution justly earned the cynic's title of “The Age of Reason,” the present stage of world history deserves to be called, in all seriousness, the Age of Ease.
Never have the peoples of the world worked harder to make things easier for themselves than during recent years. With a vast increase in wealth since the War, has come a strong determination to secure for the individual those things that help to smooth the course of life.
In this Dominion, where the per capita wealth is now higher than that of any other country, the tendency of the times tells in the same direction.
Taking advantage of the great natural resources of soil and climate at their disposal, our primary producers are adopting, with marked effect, the latest discoveries of science and triumphs of invention to the purposes of increased production. No one who has seen a modern New Zealand farm and is in a position to compare it with the typical farm of twenty years ago, can fail to be impressed with the aids to ease introduced to make farming not only a more profitable, but also a more comfortable occupation.
In the towns, too, all kinds of short cuts for getting through the work of the day with greater ease and celerity are used. And in the homes the modern fittings and appliances aid the housewife and make the whole business of living a more easeful and luxurious affair.
When the question of rents is considered, and comparisons are made with the low rates prevailing early in this century, it is seldom that the benefits of improvements in the services available are taken into account.
Modern drainage systems, hot water systems, transport facilities available at the door, better streets, electric power and lighting, playing areas, and improvements in civic services generally, have added to the actual value received for the rents paid.
The rapidity with which this country, while keeping pace with all these new amenities of life, is shaking off the financial shackles of the war period and the subsequent difficult term of readjustment followed by the inevitable trade depression, shows that it possesses a radium-like vitality and an unconquerable spirit that would apply the cold douche to the most hardened pessimist. Such a spirit, in fact, as that complained of by the cannibal chief:
But returning to the question of comfort, it is noteworthy that the railways everywhere have been challenged to bring their services up to the higher standard expected under the new order. On our own lines great improvements have been already introduced, and others are under way. The newly designed day-car, described in this issue, is an example of what is being done to make for further ease in travel, and to assist towards that higher standard of comfort which is among the public benefits that lie within the power of our national transportation system.
This is one of the directions along which the Service may work in its effort to achieve the ideal set before it by the General Manager in his Dunedin speech, as a principal objective of his management, namely, “to increase the sum total of happiness in this country.”
A Handsome Compliment
Mr. J. L. Wheeler, Junior, of Pacific Tours Limited, San Francisco (an American Tourist Company that caters for the South Sea Islands and Dominion tourist traffic, and which brings to the Dominion about 200 tourists each year), arrived in Auckland a few days ago, and, in the course of an interview, paid a handsome compliment to the New Zealand railways. After a reference to the unique tourist attractions of New Zealand Mr. Wheeler referred to our railways as follows:—
“I must say a good word for your railways. I have travelled in all parts of the world, and my experience is that your railways are hard to beat. Officials are courteous and helpful, and travelling comfortable. I will go so far as to say that if it were not for the railways I would not be bringing a party here at all.”
The Late Mr. H. C. Guinness
The passing of the late Mr. Guinness removes from our midst a railway officer of outstanding ability, and a gentleman who had endeared himself to a large circle of friends.
Mr. Guinness's devotion to duty was a marked trait in his character. He set a high standard of service as well as a fine example for the younger men of the service with whom he was associated.
We remember him years ago as a cadet at Featherston, keenly alert and capable, and his subsequent career, wherein he was tested in all kinds of capacities, went to prove him a man of exceptional merit. At Christchurch he had much opportunity for bringing into play his executive capacity, and he was one of the first officers of the Department to adapt his railway training to the new commercial spirit required in handling the affairs of the Department.
Mr. Guinness was a man of vision and enterprise, who can ill be spared from the ranks of the Department. He had already reached, at a comparatively early age, one of the most important executive positions in the Department. Referring to the institution and success of the Otira excursions, a contemporary writes:—
The success of these excursions was due in no small measure to the perseverance and energy put into the organising work by Mr. Guinness personally. In all his railway appointments, his work was characterised by farsightedness and energy. He was dersevedly popular with the business people with whom he came in contact, for he was imbued with the idea that the railways should provide whatever services the public really wanted and that they should cater for all.
The sympathy and regrets of the whole railway staff will go out to Mrs. Guinness and family in their bereavement.
Vanished Glory of the Pink Terrace
“Not the violet, not the harbell, nearest to its tint of all Nature's flowers: not torquoise, not sapphire, not the unfathomable ether itself could convey to one who had not looked on it a sense of that supernatural loveliness.”—Froude
General Manager's Message
I Propose to address to the staff, through the medium of the Magazine each month, a short message on current events of interest to the staff in the hope that in that way I may communicate to them some of the matters which are running in our minds and which I think are worthy of consideration by our railwaymen.
The exigencies of space will necessarily make the message brief, but I hope to be able from month to month to pass on ideas to our staff that may be both interesting and helpful to them in their work.
Train Control.— The system of train control which has been initiated on certain lines is now settling down to smooth working, and already material advantages in the way of increased efficiency in the operating of trains have been achieved.
As is the case with the introduction of all new procedure some difficulties were experienced in the initial stages, but the staff generally have appreciated the fact and have worked together to remove these difficulties. Sometimes there may have been misunderstandings in regard to questions which have been asked members in connection with the running of their trains. I would counsel such members to realise that it is only by the possession of the fullest measure of information regarding the actual running of trains and the reasons for variations in the performances of various trains that Train Controllers can get the best results. Such questions are asked solely because the information they elicit will be of value. I would ask the running staff to view queries received from the Train Control branch in this light, and afford them the fullest measure of information in their replies that they possibly can.
Meetings With Staff and Public.— During the month we have had a number of opportunities of coming into contact with the staff and various representative bodies of the public.
All our meetings have been very cordial in character, and I am pleased to be able to tell the staff that our reception at the various public meetings we have attended justifies the belief that there is a swing of goodwill towards the Railway Department that must be, to every member of the staff, most gratifying. We have pledged the staff to merit this goodwill and we have every confidence that every member will assist us to honour the pledge.
Statistics.—The statistical returns for the three periods ended 23rd June of the current financial year show a gratifying increase in operating efficiency. Notwithstanding the fact that the periods mentioned covered two working days less than the corresponding periods of last year, the volume of transportation, measured in gross ton miles, increased by 1.8 per cent., whereas the train mileage increased by less than .3 per cent., and the train hours decreased by 2 1/2 per cent., The average goods train load increased from 228 tons to 234 tons, or by 2 1/2 per cent., while the goods train speed increased from 11.8 miles to 12.3 miles per hour, and goods train hours decreased by more than 2 1/2 per cent.
These figures indicate that an increased volume of traffic was handled with a smaller expenditure of both time and money, and are evidence of commendable advance in the efficiency of our System.
General Manager
An Historic Locomotive
First Pacific Type 1901
The first locomotive of the (4-6-2) type, shown above, was built in 1901 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works for the New Zealand Government Railways, but was not given a designating name. Two years later the American Locomotive Company constructed a similar engine (4-6-2) of standard gauge for service on the Missouri Pacific Railway and, with this locomotive, originated the type designation of “Pacific.” The Pacific type is a development of the Atlantic type, having three pairs of driving wheels instead of two and consequently a larger boiler and firebox with the attendant increase in steam capacity and higher tractive effort. This type is used very extensively in passenger service—also for fast freight traffic.
(From “The Development of the Locomotive” published by The Central Steel Company, Massillon, Ohio, U.S.A.)
The Conundrums of Candidates
Platform Forming Extraordinary
Cecil Jonquil, a candidate for Parliamentary honours meets trouble long before he faces an audience.
Told by Leo Fanning.
Hector Jaggs was chairman of Cecil Jonquil's Election Committee, and Horace Hawkins was secretary. Jaggs a gruff, burly man, fiercely bearded, was the boss of the district. He held mortgages over many people, including Hawkins and Jonquil. Jaggs could have obtained easily his party's selection of himself to run for the seat, but he preferred a concentration on the mortgage business. After many discussions in and out of bars Jonquil was chosen not for his strength, but for his amiableness. He was a meek, mild man, with no known enemies. He was the kind of man who walked warily on rainy days lest he should tread on worms. Jonquil was also completely respectable—beyond the reach of rumour. One would no more associate sin with him than with a periwinkle.
Mr. Jonquil: I haven't reached law yet in the Encyclopaedia, but I'll get to L soon.
Mr. Jaggs: Bah!
It was the night of the first important meeting of Mr. Jonquil's General Committee. It was a night for the making of the platform. There was much raw material on the table—a Year Book, some volumes of Hansard, heaps of newspaper clippings, a litter of scribbled paper, a dictionary, a directory, and a cyclopedia of “Apt Quotations in Prose and Verse.”
Jonquil's brow was very corrugated. He was handling the pieces of scribbled paper, as if he was trying to sort them into some logical sequence. Apparently the “planks” of the prospective platform were slightly mixed.
“Of course,” said Hawkins, “you must understand at once that kissing the baby is a wash-out now, and so is helping mother at the mangle, and peeling the potatoes. But you must have a child plank all the same.”
“Assuredly, most certainly,” Jonquil replied. “I would be strongly against flannelette for nightclothes; I have the sad statistics of the burnings. I would also have ‘dummies’ suppressed. I don't believe in the gagging of infants.” He went on about malformation of palates, adenoids, and so on. He had read his Truby King.
“Bah,” ejaculated Jaggs.
“Jaggs is right,” commented Hawkins. “There are bigger dummies to suppress first. What about finance?”
“I believe,” said Jonquil, “that my most solid plank is Progronomy with Egress—I mean Progress with Economy. I am also strong on Public Health—mens sana in corpore sano, you know.”
“Bah!” said Mr. Jaggs.
“Jaggs is right,” Hawkins remarked. “Don't talk Italian or Greek. You might as well talk of men's pyjamas or pale pills for pink people. Take it systematically. Think of the man, the woman, and the child, individually and collectively, internally and externally, retrospectively and prospectively. What do they need? What do they think they need? What are they likely to think they'll think they'll need?”
“Starting with the child,” said Jonquil slowly,
“I believe I could win the mothers and many of the fathers and big sisters and aunts with a hurdy-gurdy policy—hurdy-gurdies in the public parks.”
“That would be all right for a municipal election,” Hawkins commented, “but this is a general election.”
“A hurdy-gurdy is a homely thing,” agreed Jonquil, “and I believe the people like homely things.”
“Bah!” said Mr. Jaggs.
“Jaggs is right,” Hawkins said. Life is a hurdy-gurdy. The people whirl daily among the same old things. I think they want to get away
“Most decidedly, gentlemen,” declared Jonquil. “That is my ploutest stank—I mean my stoutest plank. We must prush Crussianism—I mean we must crush Prussianism. We must hit it with a claw-hammer, a sledge-hammer, any kind of hammer; an axe, a pick, a brick—and that sort of thing. I'm a hundred per center in that line.”
“Good,” said Mr. Jaggs.
“We must have some slogans,” was the next remark of Hawkins. “The people like slogans. We must have some smart phrases, such as ‘Jonquil for the People and the People for Jonquil.’”
Mr. Jonquil looked dubious. “I have heard that people are a bit afraid of brilliant men,” he said. “Smart phrases are all right for Lloyd George and that fellow, Sir Something Smith. I don't wish to tempt the papers to head up reports of my meetings with ‘Junks of Jonquil,’ or ‘Jonquil—Jackanapes.’”
“Perhaps you are right,” said Hawkins. “We'd better run you as a quiet candidate. We can arrange for conversations in tramcars. Some of our supporters will talk like this in tones that people will be able to hear on both sides of the street: ‘I hear that fellow Jonquil is a very steady chap. He's solid; not a genius—but a plodder who gets there—reliable, respectable; doesn't use a toothpick in public; has his aitches right; not loud in ties or socks; not a gusher, not a musher’.”
Mr. Jonquil's corrugations increased.
“And we must have subtle strategy and tactics,” continued Hawkins. “We must arrange for interjections and questions at meetings to enable you to score.”
“Gentlemen,” said Jonquil, “would not that be—er—well, I don't know quite how to express it. You know I don't mean to offend any gentleman—but—er—wouldn't it be a sort of false pretence?”
Jonquil for the people! and The people for Jonquil.
“Bah!” snorted Mr. Jaggs.
“Gentlemen, of course, if any member thinks it is necessary—”
“Bah!” repeated Mr. Jaggs. “Also pooh! Also bull's wool.”
“Jaggs is right,” said Hawkins. “You must not be too tender in the conscience in a political campaign. You must do something to win. What about land?”
“I'm solid on land; I'm a great believer in land,” replied Jonquil with enthusiasm. “We couldn't get along without land. In a small way I have learned much about land. Last season I grew the biggest pumpkin within miles of my patch. I'll tell you how it was done. I—”
“But you can't have a Big Pumpkin and Parsnip Policy,” Hawkins interjected.
“No—o?” stammered Jonquil, in a tone of disappointment.
“Nor carraway seed industry,” sniggered Hawkins.
“Well, gentlemen, sign me on for what you think about land,” said Jonquil. I'm sure you'll do the right thing. To tell the truth, I haven't reached land yet in the encyclopedia, but I'll get to L soon. I'm up to J. If you like, I'll skip J and K for the present, and go back to them later.”
“Bah!” snorted Mr. Jaggs.
“Jaggs is right,” said Hawkins. “Don't go too much on the 'cyclo.’ Back-pedal a bit. The people don't like too much bookish stuff. You remember poor old—? He might have been a Minister ‘for duration’ if he hadn't stuffed himself so much with books. He became merely a paper-weight. Common-sense is what the people want.”
Mr. Jonquil looked a little bewildered. “Suppose I talk to them the same as I talk to you?” he ventured nervously.
“Bah!” said Mr. Jaggs.
“Jaggs is right,” said Hawkins. “There is common-sense—and common-sense. You must have the uncommon kind, which isn't common, but seems
Mr. Jonquil looked profoundly dejected. The corrugations were doubled. “I'm a little dizzy,” he said. “I'm not used to this—such a lot in one night. I'll feel better in the morning. I'll have an early sea bath; I've read that it's very good for the intellect. We might—we might,” he added pathetically, “we might put that in the policy.”
“Bah!” said Mr. Jaggs.
“Jaggs is right,’ said Hawkins. “You see—”
But at this stage the eavesdropper had not the heart to stay for more. He fled.
Women as Stationmasters
A dozen women perform the duties of stationmaster at small centres on the London and North-Eastern Railway Company's system in Scotland—and they are all most efficient.
An official of the L.N.E.R. made this statement to a Press representative recently, when his attention was directed to an announcement
An Historic Railway Event.
Crowds lining the railway at the opening of the new extension to Tauranga and Taneatua.
“Most of them, he said, were appointed before the railway amalgamation, and their stations are mainly on the old West Highland Line and the North British. They are principally the daughters or widows of railway men who held the posts before them.
“Mind you, they are women, not ‘flappers,’ and they are efficient stationmistresses in every sense of the word. They are supplied with a uniform and on the collar and cap is the word ‘Stationmistress.’ They take complete charge. As a rule there is not much passenger traffic at their stations, but timber and other goods traffic is handled, and they give a hand with the manual work when necessary. They have porters under them and keep order about the place.”
The stationmistresses receive the same rates of pay as men in similar posts, and they are treated in every way as if they were men. There has been no difficulty with any unions about them.
Mr. H. H. Sterling , General Manager of Railways, speaks before a representative public gathering in Canterbury, and outlines his management policy.I have no great scheme for you. It is simply wrapped up in co-operation. If I have that from the commercial people on the one hand and the railwaymen on the other hand, I will, when I lay down the reins of office and give an account of my stewardship be a happy man.”
With these words Mr. H. H. Sterling, General Manager of the New Zealand Railways, concluded his address at the luncheon tendered him by the Canterbury Progress League.
Mr. J. E. Strachan, president of the League, presided over a large and representative gathering.
Mr. Strachan expressed pleasure at welcoming Mr. Sterling back to Christchurch. Mr. Sterling had had a distinguished career in the Railway Department, and he paid a tribute to his courage in undertaking the task he did at this juncture. Mr. Sterling believed even at this time that he could make the railways pay. Mr. Sterling came to Christchurch when we were in a very happy mood in regard to the railways. The whole South Island appreciated the inauguration of the night express.
The Mayor offered Mr. Sterling the congratulations of the city on his elevation to such high office. Christchurch was proud of its son. While there were many big things to be done there were some small things that could be attended to.
Mr. C. P. Agar, president of the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce, said Mr. Sterling had come to Christchurch especially to meet them, and he trusted their guest would be given adequate opportunity to speak to them. The system now reverted to by the railways was the only one that, in his view, could be successful. He had believed the Government had reverted to a wise policy in appointing a general manager and it had been wise in selecting Mr. Sterling for that office. Mr. Sterling had had an opportunity of seeing the railways from the users' point of view. He assured Mr. Sterling he would have the support of the commercial community in his task.
Mr. Sterling expressed pleasure at receiving an invitation to attend the annual meeting of the League, and was disappointed he was unable to attend. He was pleased to receive another opportunity to address them. He had an insoluble association with Christchurch. He had been struck by the way the business men were getting together. That was a thing that applied as much to railways as to any other business. He had felt that the call back to the railways was one he had to answer. The man who shirked a duty in the industrial field was as much a shirker as the military shirker. There was a close bond between the Prime Minister and himself—not a political bond, but a bond of association in railway affairs.
The fact had been overlooked that railway affairs had been in a unique position. The railways had had to put up with the depression that affected the business community and had had the complete upsetting of the transport industry that had come as a consequence of the introduction of a new factor therein. They had an enemy in the front—depression, and an enemy in the rear—this new factor. The new form of transport was here to stay and was capable of giving good service to this country. Much of the competition that the railways had been up against was not economic, and, being such, would be evanescent in character, and would require a very careful policy in framing methods to meet it. There were things that they might do to meet it that would prove in the end to be a drag on the country. The railways were in much the same position as any other commodity. It was a question of supply and demand. They had to find ways to meet the demand. He had full confidence in the railwaymen. They were a body of men in which he had such confidence that he did not hesitate to throw in his lot with them in an effort to do his best for the country. The railwaymen had the capacity, and he believed they had the will, to deliver the goods. He wanted to instil the idea into the railwaymen that they had a moral obligation to the country. If he could do that, all would be well, and they would be well on the way to giving satisfaction to the public.
They had to consider the customer, actual and potential. They had to make the customer feel that his custom was appreciated and that they regarded him as a friend, and to make the potential customer feel that he was a person in whom they were interested and whose custom they wanted. It was difficult to gauge the demand so that they might create the supply. In such an institution as the railways they frequently found that they had demands from people who thought they were doing the best for the country, but whose outlook was tinged with self-interest.
“It will be my deliberate policy,” said Mr. Sterling, “to invite the co-operation of everybody—of the Progress League, of the Chamber of Commerce, and every other like body that will help us to gauge the demand accurately. I do invite you now to believe that I speak from the bottom of my heart when I ask you to come in with me on this problem. The chairman said he thought I would make the railways pay. Whether they will pay or not lies in the lap of the gods. What we all can do, and what I shall endeavour to do, will be to do the best possible in the circumstances. This is as much as I can do, and it is going to be no one-man job. I carry no talisman in my pocket other than that one word—co-operation—that will enable that ‘wantingness’ to change into a state of sufficiency. If you see anything wrong I want you to believe it will be appreciated by me if you will let me know. I have no feeling other than friendliness towards any constructive criticism that can be brought to bear on the work of the railways. I have a feeling that if we do not have criticism we will slip back. I want criticism that is constructive and helpful and made with a sincere desire to co-operate with me to get the best results from the railways in which you gentlemen, in common with the rest of the country, are shareholders.”
A Memorable Run.
Arrival at Wellington of the first through Express from Auckland (distance 426 miles) on 18th August, 1908.
Mr. Sterling pointed out that a sum of fifty million pounds was involved in the railways. That was a tremendous load for this country. If the country did not carry the load it would have its reflex on industry generally. He felt that if they were going to do justice to themselves they must all have a personal interest in the problem. It was easy to throw bricks. He did not know that it was much good. It might break a few windows, but it would never build a house. He wanted to build an economic structure that would be perfect in its parts and that would have no broken windows. He would like to see the sum total of happiness in this country increase, and it would give the railway authorities much happiness to talk over difficulties with anybody.
They tried to gauge the demand as well as they could. Sometimes they took their courage in their hands and tried to anticipate it. It was realised that a higher standard of comfort was demanded because of the change that had taken place in transport. People would not put up to-day with the discomforts that had been associated with steam traction in the past.
The institution of farmers' excursions was an effort to meet a demand. On march 26th the excursion of North Canterbury farmers to Southland took 744 farmers. On June 4th the West Coast farmers' excursion to Dunedin took 212 farmers. On June 28th the Otago farmers' excursion to the West Coast took 240 farmers. The Otira tunnel, when it was undertaken, was expected to deal with a traffic of 1000 tons a day. It would be interesting to know that recently the Department had created a record of 3100 tons per day through the “hole in the hill.” The men had been called upon to deal with a treble load, and they had not heard one word of dissatisfaction from the people whose business was dealt with through the tunnel. That was a silent work that was carried on and about which very little was heard, for the achievements of the railwaymen could not be blazoned from the housetops.
Mr. Sterling congratulated Canterbury on the excellent grain season that had been experienced.
For the four weeks ended May 26th last there were moved on the railways 324,000 tons of grain, as against 172,000 tons for the corresponding period of last year. The increase for the season probably would not be proportionately large, as the grain was later this year. Dealing with complaints about shortage of waggons, Mr. Sterling said they could not control the demand for waggons in any shape whatever, and yet they had been able successfully to deal with the great increases in business to which he had referred, even though their difficulties were increased by the shoaling of the Greymouth bar and the consequent necessity for shifting a great deal of stuff overland.
“I want to say,” said Mr. Sterling, “that my ambition is to give a maximum of public satisfaction, to give you the best possible service the railways can give you at the least possible cost. To do that I have to get the co-operation of the railwaymen, of which I think I am assured, and I must get the co-operation of the people who control the business of this country. It will be my deliberate policy to move about freely during the time that I am able to do so for the purpose of coming into contact with my customers so that I may hear the worst, and, if you are charitably disposed,
The General Manager of Railways, Mr. H. H. Sterling, recently visited the Middleton Shunting and Marshalling Yards, Christchurch, and discussed with the shunters questions associated with their work. The group shows the General Manager (front row, centre of doorway) with shunters and officers of the Department.
Departmental Examinations
As showing the interest taken in the Department's Correspondence Classes, we print below a list giving the number of candidates who sat for the various March examinations:—
Spidy
Co-operative Committee System of the Canadian National Railways
Reading the report of the delegation appointed by the British Government to study industrial conditions in Canada and the United States, I came across a very interesting appendix dealing with the Co-operative Committee System that has been in operation since 1925 in the Workshops of the Canadian National Railways.
The establishment of Shop Committees in our own Workshops, somewhat over a year ago now, has demonstrated the active and constructive assistance that can be rendered, to mutual advantage, in such an organisation as ours. The part that interests me—and will interest all those who have the interests of the service at heart—is the range of subjects which have become committee business in the Canadian National Railway.
The first Electric Overhead Crane being erected at Hillside Workshops. The crane is of 25 tons capacity and will operate in the rivelling tower of the boiler and machine shops.
The report is too long to copy, but I think paragraphs four and seven are worth reproducing. They show clearly there is little limit to the activity of such committees provided sound judgment and common-sense always prevail.
Paragraph four states:—
The scheme of co-operation between the Unions and the Management is based on this union organisation. The joint machinery consists of (a) local joint meetings held every two weeks of equal representation between the shop management and local federated shop committee, and (b) joint conferences held quarterly, as a rule, between the members of the system federation and the executive head of the department of maintenance of equipment and his staff.
Paragraph seven states:—
A marked feature of the scheme is that the subjects discussed at these joint meetings are entirely constructive in nature. Separate machinery is provided under agreement between the unions and the Railway companies for the settlement of wages and working conditions, the adjustment of grievances and disputes and the interpretation of the agreements. For example, in Canada the Railway Adjustment Board is the final arbitrator on questions of interpretation of the existing wages agreements. Matters which are most likely to provoke dissension are therefore excluded from the subjects considered by the co-operative meetings. The subjects which are customarily considered include the following:—
1. Job analysis and standardisation.
2. Improving tools and equipment.
3. Proper storage, care and delivery of material.
4. Economical use of supplies and material.
5. Proper balancing of forces and work in shops.
6. Co-ordinating and scheduling of work through shops.
7. Training apprentices.
8. Recruiting new employees.
9. Improving quality of work.
10. Conditions of shops and shop grounds, especially in respect to heating, lighting, ventilation and safety.
11. Securing new business for the railroad.
12. Securing new work for the shops.
13. Measuring output.
14. Stabilising employment.
The success of the scheme depends on the spirit which animates it, and the detailed conference procedure is largely determined by common sense and co-operation. The view taken by the unions is that they have as great an interest at stake on these subjects as in their immediate hourly wages rate or working conditions, and that it is only in so far as the organised worker through his union can show that he contributes to the greater success of industry by means of helping to eliminate waste, that he enables industry to provide him a higher standard of living and at the same time he greatly strengthens his rightful claim upon the progressively improving benefits of industry.
By way of explanation I may add that in Canada each craft has its own union and all these unions are in one Federation, and the term “local federated shop committee” refers to one member elected from each craft union in that Workshop. The result, in effect, is almost identical with our own system of electing local shop committeemen.
There is always room for a man of force, and he makes room for many.—Emerson.
The First Locomotive (Ab 409) to enter the new Erecting Shop at Hillside Workshops, 17th July, 1928.
Proof-readers Please Note
New Type of Car for the Main Trunk
The Chief Mechanical Engineer (Mr. G. S. Lynde) is now engaged upon the final details of a new type of car for the Main Trunk. This car, with its handsome outline and generous spaciousness, promises to provide the ideal of comfort and luxury for day travel.
It is 50 feet long and has seating accommodation for 27 passengers. Mr. Lynde states that he has sacrificed three seats, as compared with the existing Main Trunk car, to give more luxurious accommodation for the travelling public.
There are 10 of these new type cars to be built, seven non-smokers and three smokers, seven for the North Island and three for the South Island. The non-smoking cars have lavatories at either end, one for ladies and one for gentlemen, and will be equipped with hot and cold water.
The car windows are of the frameless balanced type, opening from the top to the bottom, as opposed to our existing windows, which open from the bottom towards the top.
Above the balanced window is a sliding glass ventilator, and immediately above the sliding glass ventilator is the M.M. air extractor. The car will be sheathed with Vitron enamel steel sheathing, which is in accordance with the very latest practice. With this sheathing there is no painting or varnishing required. The Department's crest will be burnt into the enamel, also the class and smoking or non-smoking signs, as the case may be.
The platform doors open inwards, and, as will be seen from the plan, additional doors are placed at the entrance to the car inside so that draughts will be eliminated. The car is of the totally enclosed type, having vestibule ends through which passengers may pass to the next car without suffering any discomfort. The car will be fitted with
Plan of the New Type of Car which is Described above.
The car will be steam-heated on the atmospheric principle. This will be controlled at four different places at the will of the passengers in the car. The advantage of the atmospheric system is that it will enable an equal distribution of heat to all parts of the train. In the three smoking cars a coupe has been provided, which will accommodate four passengers. This coupe is most generously designed and will give the maximum of comfort and luxury. It should prove a boon to the public who wish to engage a small compartment of the sort for private parties.
With the revitalised railway management that we have now a good deal is being done to make the New Zealand Railways a success (comments the “Poverty Bay Herald”). In many directions the Department is reaching out after business, and endeavouring to give such good and efficient service that opposition is disarmed. The railways already are regaining a good deal of lost ground, demonstrating every day how essential they are in the economic system of this Dominion. For a fertile district such as this they are most essential to development, and it would be a thousand pities if through disunion and disputation on the part of our people the project for the accomplishment of railway communication should be set back for any appreciable period.
A sound and well-maintained permanent way is an essential to efficient railway operation (writes our London Correspondent). The Home railways are leaders in this direction, and considering the severe wear and tear to which the British track is subjected, the life of the rail is remarkably long. Interesting data in this regard was recently given out by Mr. V. A. M. Robertson, one of the L. and N.E.R. District Engineers, in the course of a paper on “Bridges and Permanent Way,” read at a meeting of the L. and N.E.R. London Lecture and Debating Society. The average life of permanent way throughout Britain was given as twenty-one years. In the London district of the L. and N.E.R., the average life of plain road was about eighteen years, although various component parts, such as old rails, chairs, sleepers, and so on, frequently had to be renewed before that life had expired. The permanent way in Liverpool Street Station presented a pretty problem for the maintenance engineer. There, the average life of points and crossings is three years, the shortest being twelve months. The average life of rails at Liverpool Street was stated to be four years, and the shortest eighteen months. Liverpool Street is the busiest steam-operated terminus in London. In a single day as many as one thousand heavy trains pass in and out of this gigantic terminal.
“When will the coal be gone?” is a question asked in Baker Brownell's “The New Universe,” recently published. Answering it he states that there are, in the world, more than 7,000 billion tons of coal, of which the United States has more than half; Canada has 16 per cent., Europe 11 per cent., Asia 17 per cent and the other regions together less than 6 per cent. “If the United States burns coal at 400 million tons to a billion tons a year for 4,000 years, she would barely exhaust her stock. Others are not so fortunate. By each limiting their burning to 400 million tons a year, England can keep supplied for 450 years, and Germany for one thousand years.
The actual cost of a train stop, including such items as waste of fuel, loss of time, and damage to equipment, is not generally appreciated, even by the employee whose duties are directly concerned with train movements (says the “Railway Age”). For this reason the Missouri-Kansas-Texas has provided in each interlocking tower a sign which conveys the following message in large letters: “It costs $2.50 (10/5) to Stop a Train.” The amount mentioned is a conservative estimate of the average cost of a train stop; in fact, the stopping of heavy trains on an adverse grade will result not only in wasted fuel, but also in delays, especially if a draw-bar is pulled out when attempting to start. The emphasizing of the costs of unsound practices undoubtedly is useful, and may well be employed to influence other employees as well as towermen. Local freight crews and yard crews who are often required to switch on the main line, as well as track foremen, signal maintainers, and bridge crews, would often profit by definite statements of the reason for the importance of avoiding train stops.
Our London Letter
In this contribution our special London Correspondent discusses the principal transport developments in Gt. Britain and on the Continent
“Swift Shuttles of an Empire's Loom”
“Come to Scotland” is the call which is this summer being broadcasted throughout the length and breadth of the Homeland by the two big railway systems that connect England with her northern neighbour. A great deal of time and money is being spent by the Home railways to attract passengers to holiday resorts scattered throughout England, but it is upon travel to Scotland that this season's publicity campaigns are primarily directed.
The London, Midland and Scottish and London and North Eastern Railways both emphatically deny that there is to be witnessed this season anything approaching the historic “Railway Race” to Scotland of years gone by. It is a fact that the journey time of the London-Edinburgh run by both the East and West Coast routes remains unaltered, but the two competing lines are vying one with the other in the provision of new amenities calculated to attract the traveller, to an extent never before contemplated. A through non-stop run of 392 1/2 miles, performed daily by the “Flying Scotsman” in each direction between London and Edinburgh is certainly an accomplishment calculated to draw business. It is also an achievement of which the L. and N.E.R. may well be proud, as being the first occasion in railway history that locomotive crews have been changed en route while travelling at speed. No other railway in the world has ever attempted so lengthy a daily non-stop passenger train schedule as this, and the utilisation of the new corridor tender, which was described in my last letter, is absolutely unique in railway annals.
Hand-in-hand with the improvements now being recorded in long-distance passenger train services in Britain, much attention is being devoted to the betterment of short-distance transport. Cheap fares and frequent services maintained by steam and petrol-driven rail motor cars are doing a great work in keeping to rails much business which once threatened to pass to road. Among the several types of equipment favoured for branch line operation, an especially interesting type of steam rail car is the new “Sentinel Cammell” vehicle now being introduced in considerable numbers on the L. and N.E. line.
Each of the new cars comprises a driving compartment, with boiler, engine, tanks and bunkers, a passenger compartment giving seats for 59 travellers, and a small section for the use of the driver when the car is operated in the reverse direction. The cars are 62 feet long over all, and are mounted on two four-wheeled bogies with wheels of 3ft. 1in. diameter. The power unit comprises a vertical, two-cylinder, double-acting engine driving by means of chains to the second axle. The boiler has a working pressure of 2751b., and has an output of approximately 23001b. of steam per hour. The cylinders are of 6 3/4in. diameter and 9in. stroke, and the weight of the complete vehicle without coal and water works out at approximately 26 tons.
The seats in the new L. and N.E. car are of the walk-over pattern, and straps are also provided for 20 standing passengers. The interior of each car is finished in mahogany, and the cars are steam-heated and lit by electricity. Each of the cars has been given a distinctive name, which it carries on the exterior side panels. The titles have been adapted from those once given the horse-drawn stage-coaches of the pre-railway era, and include such names as “Tally Ho,” “Highflyer,” “Transit,” “Red Rover,” and “Trafalgar.” In the interior of each car there is displayed a framed notice giving particulars
Railways the world over are devoting much serious consideration to the problem of road competition, and here in Europe the railways of almost every land are finding the problem one bristling with difficulties. In course of time it seems certain rail and highway will find their respective levels in the world of transport, but for the moment there is vast confusion, competition and duplication of services, in both the passenger and freight carrying sections. One of the most trying features of the road competition problem in Europe is the fact that in many countries passenger-carrying road vehicles are operated on an extensive scale by the postal authorities, in direct competition with the railways. In Germany and Austria, in particular, competition of this character is severely handicapping the railways, and the whole problem of subsidised road transport on these lines calls for the closest scrutiny.
The “Pacific” Corridor Tender Locomotive of the “Flying Scotsman”
In Austria the postal authorities to-day operate passenger services by road motor over 180 different routes, covering between 3,500 and 4,000 miles of road. This year the Austrian Post Office commenced the issue of a public time-table of passenger road services, giving details of all routes, distances and tariffs, and steps now are being taken by the railways of the land to stimulate public interest in their protest against this competition, which is largely subsidised by the Government, and therefore by the individual taxpayer, instead of being conducted on business lines.
A wonderful piece of mechanism is the twentieth century steam locomotive. Like that most perfect of all machines—the human body — it is, however, liable to suffer from a long string of indispositions, arising out of over-work, mis-use, and the like. The problem of minimising engine failures is ever with us, and there is a wide field of study open for the locomotive engineer in devising ways and means of maintaining the locomotive in perfect going order and thus reducing to a minimum the time spent idle in the shops.
At December 31st, 1927, there were some 877 locomotives in the shops of the London, Midland and Scottish line awaiting or undergoing repairs, or 8 1/2 per cent. of the total locomotive stock of the system. The London and North Eastern had 773 locomotives in shops at this date; the Great Western 680, and the Southern 432. It is impossible to eliminate locomotive failures altogether, for certain failures are due to defects in material which cannot be foreseen. One cannot help thinking, however, that a great deal more might often be done by the running shed staffs to minimise engine failures arising through other causes, and by emulating the physician, who always seeks to ascertain the root of the trouble, afford a permanent cure for the several ailments to which the locomotive is a martyr.
A locomotive may develop a hot bearing or leaky tubes, and, having received attention in the shops, be turned out again for service without any attempt being made to ascertain the origin of the trouble, and to put that trouble to rights once and for all. Many of these common ailments of the locomotive could be avoided altogether by the intelligent examination of engine drivers and others who have had experience of the machine in running. It is a very wise gospel that tells us “Prevention is better than cure.” In the locomotive world one would like to see this motto inscribed in six-foot letters in every running shed.
A signal-box equipped with a frame containing 312 levers is a sight which would create rare wonder in the minds of George Stephenson and his fellow pioneers, were they alive to-day. A cabin of this size is now being installed by the Southern line at London Bridge Station, in the metropolis, and this new signal-box will rank as the third largest signal cabin in Britain, the
While the Southern line, in common with the other trunk railways serving London, is faced with very perplexing signalling problems, it is on the Underground railways of the capital that the most wonderful of signalling systems has been devised to ensure the safe working of the exceptionally dense traffic handled over the surface and underground tracks which cross and criss-cross throughout the city and suburbs. On all the lines constituting the London underground system power signalling is installed. All lines are track-circuited throughout, the single rail type being favoured in all instances, except on the Central London route where both running rails are employed for traction current return and double rail track circuits with impedance bonds are favoured. The signals, operated from power frames fitted with miniature levers, are of the semi-automatic pattern, and are replaced to “danger” when a train passes them, irrespective of the position of the lever. After being put to “danger” the signals will not return to the “clear” indication until the lever controlling them has been replaced to the normal position in the power frame, and again reversed. This is effected by a “stick” relay, and the back locking circuits for the electric lock on the signal lever also are taken through this relay.
The London Underground railways, in addition to leading in the signalling field, also take a foremost place among the world's railways in the scientific training of their staffs. Every applicant for employment on the Underground is interviewed by the Superintendent of the line, or one of his assistants, and is required to pass a stiff medical examination. His previous record is carefully studied, as is also his personal cleanliness and bearing. The minimum height has been fixed at 5ft. 7in., and every new entrant into the service is required to pass through the company's training school. Five or six days are spent in this school at the outset, the time being occupied in introducing the employee to the geography of the system, the interchange points, and the connecting facilities with road services in and around the metropolis. After being appointed to a position in the service, the new employee is encouraged to study branches of railway working other than his own, and free tuition is given in the training school in all subjects appertaining to the operation of the line. A special cadet system also is in being under which specially selected men are afforded intensive training for the higher positions.
For some time now the Home railways have been in the fortunate position of being able to meet without discomfort the whole of the demands of traders for goods wagons. In this connection there has recently been issued by the London and North Eastern Railway an illuminating statement describing the freight wagon position on the line throughout 1927. At December 31st, 1927, there were some 271, 434 goods and coal wagons (excluding cattle trucks and locomotive coal wagons) in use on the L. and N.E. system. The total number of journeys originating on the line with freight and coal traffic in railway-owned vehicles during 1927 was 13,430,282, so that each wagon performed on the average rather more than 49 journeys, or one trip in 6.3 days.
In the busiest week in 1927 the total number of wagons actually loaded on the L. and N.E. line was 280,811, and therefore during that period the average round-trip time of each wagon was 5.8 days. The stock of wagons owned by the L. and N.E. Railways includes 7,183 live stock trucks and 2,895 fish wagons. The heaviest individual load carried during the year 1927 was an ingot mould weighing 100 tons, which was conveyed suspended on a special girder fixed at each end to pivotal cradles erected on two flat trucks, each of 60 tons carrying capacity.
Outside London and Paris, no European city ranks of greater importance as a railway centre than Berlin. Here is handled the densest of city and suburban business, as well as a most important long-distance traffic connecting the German capital with every continental city of note. Big improvement plans now are being worked out in Berlin by the new German Railway Company established under the Dawes Plan, and these schemes include an ambitious electrification project covering the principal city and suburban routes.
For the haulage of main-line passenger trains across Berlin, there is to be utilised in the near future a new type of 476 kilowatt electric locomotive, with four driving axles having a total weight of 102 tons and a maximum speed of about forty miles an hour. It is proposed to eliminate steam working altogether within city limits, and an endeavour also has been made to arrive at types of electric motor cars and trailers offering at the same time a large seating capacity and low weight in conjunction with adequate resistance. The employment of silicon steel with high tensile resistance for the parts most subject to strain has made it possible to economise in weight to the extent of something like twenty-five per cent. The normal electric trains on the Berlin suburban routes consist of eight cars, comprising four motor cars and four trailers. Each train seats about 448 passengers, and can actually carry, with standing passengers, as many as 1,200 persons during rush hours.
Freidrichstrasse Station, Berlin
Freidrichstrasse Station, Berlin, where electrification is to take the place of steam operation.
Pleasures of Rail Travel
A writer in the “Observer,” London, makes the following remarks. “To most people a railway journey is a delightful oasis in the desert of life; an interval in the fourth dimension with no responsibilities, no cares and no duties; when you can idle without remorse, and read books of incredible foolishness without loss of self respect,” and so on. Frequently quite a lot of work is done by business travellers in the course of a journey, though obviously it is not of the sort which can be handled in one's own office, with staff, telephones, ledgers, etc., all handy. On the other hand a railway journey can be thought inducing and useful, or pleasantly restful, according to one's own circumstances and the conditions of travel.
Suggestions and Inventions
Nearly Two Thousand Submitted Last Year
The past year has been a record one for the suggestions and inventions branch of the New Zealand Railways. The branch has had 1739 suggestions and inventions to deal with, some 500 more than has been received in any year since its inception in 1925. Of these suggestions 131 have been adopted, and in some cases a monetary reward paid. In addition there are about 150 suggestions still under consideration.
It is not generally known that the public are at liberty to forward suggestions, inventions and bright ideas to this committee in Wellington. The suggestions are considered by the committee and are used if they are deemed sufficiently valuable. What is wanted particularly are methods of saving money by the introduction of more efficient systems, mechanical or otherwise.
The model locomotive built by Mr. F. Roberts of Epsom, Auckland.
Since the committee started work over 3,000 suggestions have poured in. Many of these ideas are highly technical and are mainly supplied by the railway staff, but the public have submitted quite a number. The most numerous, however, have been inventions in connection with automatic safety systems at railway crossings. The general public have attacked this problem much more vigorously than any other, even at the expense of ideas for their own personal comfort on trains. The railway crossing inventions, unfortunately, have not covered new ground. None have equalled the standard warning of flashing signals already in use. Next in numbers are a long series of suggestions for improvement in hand rails on trucks, to prevent the hand rails becoming covered by tarpaulins and causing difficulty to shunters in the course of their duties. Curiously enough the general public has been busy on these suggestions as well as the more technical members of the Railway Department.
The ever-increasing motor competition has not been forgotten by inventors. There are all sorts of ideas how to combat this competition, but at present some of these are of a secret nature, and cannot be disclosed. Obviously a reduction in railway fares would play a large part in this problem of road competition. Inventors have been fertile with ideas how this can be done.
It is extraordinary what a vast scope has been covered by these suggestions—ranging from the berthing of whaling ships at docks to the wildly fantastic and somewhat irrelevant invention of how to obscure flashes from artillery guns by a complicated system of shutters. Quite the most novel idea submitted consists of organised entertainment for passengers on long distance runs. These would comprise music, sketches, and humour. Another traveller considers sleeping boards that would be placed from seat to seat would be an excellent innovation.
It is worth mentioning that one individual wrote and suggested that oxygen should be supplied to the drivers and firemen to prevent suffocation in long tunnels. Checking of luggage comes in for considerable thought, but the ideas do not appear to offer any improvement on existing systems.
An idea that would surely appeal to many users of the long-distance trains is to sell food coupons en route which would have to be merely presented to the waitress in exchange for a meal. Corss-word puzzles in time-tables, dust coats for passengers, and an automatic system for waking members of the staff who sleep in, all receive a fair measure of attention.
Every suggestion sent in is considered on its merits by the committee. Furthermore, there is an interchange of ideas with Australia. Many of our successful innovations are sent to Australia, whilst they in return send us the pick of inventions from Australian brains.
“The driver sits on the right-hand seat,
And his heart keeps time with the rhythmic beat
Of the valves, and he's grimed with smoke and heat
When the North Express comes in.”
—John Maclennan.
Christchurch-Invercargill Express (hauled by the Memorial Locomotive Passchendaele) on the outskirts of Christchurch.
Bishop
The interesting series of articles, on the Theory of Combustion, which have been appearing in the Magazine since January last, concludes with this instalment. In an early issue we hope to commence printing a further series of articles by Mr. Bishop, on “Derailments and Their Causes”— a subject of general interest to railwaymen.
Things for Enginemen to Remember
The nitrogen which is mixed with the oxygen in the air carries away much heat without serving any useful purpose; this is unavoidable.
10. The object of the damper is to supply air under the fire, which is necessary to make it burn. It is not possible to supply all the air required in this way, because air must be introduced to the top side of the fire to mix with the monoxide and thus produce combustion. The damper, however, is of the greatest possible use in regulating the fire. If the damper was kept absolutely closed and no air allowed to pass through it, the fire would burn very imperfectly—from the top only.
When running down banks standing at stations and signals—in all cases where steam is not being used as rapidly as produced, the damper serves a most useful purpose. If properly used in these cases it should be nearly closed. It thus prevents the fire from being burnt faster than is necessary. (The firehole door also should be closed if this can be done without smoke being given off.) The damper should always be used in connection with the firehole door as the means of regulating the amount of steam produced.
Line drawing, showing front of new shunting engine being designed for the N.Z.R.
11. The correct position of the firehold door (when not open for firing) is that which allows the smallest amount of smoke to be given off. This is determined by observation, and it may be taken for granted that if the firehole door is operated according to this principle the coal is being used economically. When little steam is required the firehole door should be nearly or wholly closed, only sufficient air being admitted to allow of the gases given off by the fire being consumed.
12. The firehole door should never be opened to check the generation of steam. It is quite unnecessary to open the firehole door for this purpose, and it is one of the worst practices which can be indulged in. This is because it leads to waste by causing a large quantity of unnecessary air to be admitted into the firebox, air which is heated up and carried away without serving any useful purpose. Indeed, a sudden inrush of air, by cooling down the tube plate, may start the tubes leaking.
13. Other aids to combustion are the brick arch and deflector plates. These tend to throw together and mix the gases given off by the coal and the air admitted through the firehole door.
14. There is no definite rule for the proper firing of a boiler. It depends on several points that may vary with different locomotives. But general points which should be aimed at are: Regularity of firing, and the importance of keeping the fire as thin as possible.
15. The occasion when a fire should not be kept as thin as possible is when the grate is small and the blast somewhat sharp.
If a very thin fire was kept under these conditions, the sharpness of the blast would draw in, through the grate and firehole door, more air than was required. The excess air would have to be heated up, and heat would thus be wasted. The fire would also tend to burn through in holes, through which excess air would be drawn causing sparks to be ejected from the chimney. In such a case the fire should be thickened. With a gentle blast and a large grate the fire should be kept as thin as possible without allowing it to burn into holes.
Let me emphasise once more, in conclusion, that the proper method of firing will vary with different grates and classes of engines. The principal object the fireman should have in view is to prevent holes in the fire; as a rule the corners and sides should be kept higher than the centre of the fire, as this
No. 1 Locomotive Ambulance Division (1927–1928), Dunedin.
Back row: B. F. Keating, A. E. Robinson (Treasurer), J. H. McCracken, J. Hall, W. W. N. Worth. Third row: J. Robb, R. H. McCurdy, T. F. McLennan, C. R. Tuck, W. J. Stackhouse, J. P. McEneany. Second row: A. Westfield (Corporal), G. R. Syder (1st Officer), A. G. Foster (Supt.), Dr. C. M. Greenslade (Div. Surgeon), J. Dickson (Sergt.), P. Cull (Hon. Sec.), J. Shaw. In front: D. J. N. McFie, R. A. Bramley.
James Cowan
After his experience at Rangiriri General Cameron would not risk another frontal assault; so, after some artillery practice and rifle sniping, Cameron made a strategic movement by night to the Maoris’ rear. Crossing the Mangapiko River—that dark, slow stream we presently meet on our southward course—he marched a column through Te Awamutu village and mission station and captured Rangiaowhia, the great source of food-supply of the garrison. The pretty village there was the scene of a lively fight, and there was another between it and Te Awamutu on the following day, when the British troops routed the Maoris at the point of the bayonet.
Building the Main Trunk Line.
A view of the Raurimu Spiral as it was twenty years ago.
Paterangi being now untenable, the garrison deserted it, and the next fight was the final event of the Waikato War, the siege of Orakau. One of the Imperial officers who inspected the earthworks at Paterangi after the evacuation declared that the system of redoubts and trenches was stronger than the famous Redan at the Crimea.
Te Awamutu Town (the name signifies the head of canoe navigation) is, like Hamilton, a mile away from the Main Trunk line. The traveller who has the time might well stop over here and see something of this little metropolis of the Waipa district, and of the beautiful farming lands around it, the garden country of the Waikato. It is quite a model town for its size, well proportioned to the needs of the good agricultural region of which it is the business centre. The pride of the place is the pretty English church, in its old-fashioned burying-ground by the side of the willow-walled Manga-o-Hoi Stream It is an histori building, one of the first of Bishop Selwyn's Maori mission churches, dating back to 1854, when the Rev. John Morgan was the missionary of the Waipa country. Maoris worshipped here before the war and the conquest, when Te Awamutu was an oasis of civilisation in these parts. At the old mission station, in its great groves across the road, Sir John Gorst had his headquarters in the early “sixties,” when he was Government Commissioner in the Waikato, until the Kingites summarily suppressed his little pro-Government newspaper, the Pihoihoi Mokemoke, and evicted him from the Maori country. Rewi Maniapoto and his fellow-chiefs had a short way with propaganda they considered objectionable. A current story was that they used the lead type to mould into bullets, which they fired at the troops. The fact is, however, that they took scrupulous care to return the printing press and type to the Government; it was packed up and sent down the Waipa and Waikato by canoe.
A mile south of Te Awamutu Station the railway crosses the Puniu River. An insignificant stream this, almost hidden by weeping willows. Unless you keep a lookout for it you may cross without noticing it. But it is worth a glance and more, for it was, and still is, a river of great political importance. This quiet river, meandering down westward to join the Waipa, is the northern boundary of the Rohepotae, or King Country. It was the olden line of demarcation between the Waikato and Ngati-Maniapoto tribes; it was made the southern limit of fighting and land confiscation when the Government conquered the Waikato; it was for twenty years after the war the frontier beyond which the Queen's writ did not run; and the frontier where trespass by white men was more than once punished with bullet and tomahawk. In 1884, a year before the first sod of the railway line south of the river was turned, Puniu was proclaimed the northern boundary line of the Rohepotae no-license district, a huge “dry” territory that takes in the whole King Country. The pact made between the Government and the Maori chiefs of that day still holds good. It was agreed that no intoxicating liquor should be sold in the King Country, and so you must not forget that you may not legally buy a drink anywhere between Te Awamutu and Taihape—a matter of 166 miles—on the Main Trunk, or Pipiriki if you go down the Wanganui River, or Urenui if you go by the coast road to Taranaki.
The northern part of the Wellington Provincial District. From the highest part of the Main Trunk line (South and east of Mt. Ruapehu) the railway descends into the fertile Rangitikei Valley and out on to the beautiful agricultural and pastoral lands of the Manawatu.
The “Rohepotae,” the Maori name for this territory, means literally a circular boundary like the rim of a hat. It was first applied to the country in the early “eighties” when the great Wahanui and his fellow-chiefs resolved that no sales or leases of land to the white man should be made within the district from the Puniu and Kawhia Harbour southward to the White Cliffs (Taranaki) and the Upper Wanganui. The term “King Country was given in the “sixties,” after the defeated Waikato and their allies under King Tawhiao had retired to the south side of the Puniu. Tawhiao's headquarters for many years was Tokangamutu (the present Te Kuiti); then Hikurangi, a beautiful spur of Pironga Mountain; Te Kopua; and, lastly, Whatiwhatihoe, on the Waipa River.
It was seventeen years before the King and his men laid down their guns in token of final peacemaking. It was not until 1888 that the Waikato in a body at last left the King Country borders, where they had lived on their allies, and returned in a flotilla of canoes, a picturesque tribeflitting, to what was left to them of their olden homes on the west side of the Lower Waikato.
The face of the King Country to-day is wonderfully transformed. Once upon a time, when we used to ride for many miles on the south side of the Punui without seeing home of man, or any cultivation, only at far intervals a Maori settlement, the great countryside of hill and valley, plain, swamp and forest was a wide-extending waste. As we rode over such places as the Manukarere Plains we set mobs of wild horses madly galloping, and we startled many a fern-rooting
A Beautiful River Scene.
The Gorge of the Wanganui River at Kakahi.
Now the contrast. The hundreds of thousands of acres that forty years ago had not one white settler are supporting a large farming population and scores of town and village communities. Dairying, cattle raising, wool and mutton growing bring the country wealth. The white population many times outnumbers the Maori.
A Frontier of Volcanic Cones
Story Mountains of the Border.
Ancient volcanic cones that seem to form a line of sentries along this Aukati line, the old frontier, are a conspicuous landscape feature of the King Country border. Between the Maungatautari Range on the east and Pirongia's forested peak, 3,444 feet high, on the west, there is a series of cones and ranges of obvious volcanic origin, now clothed in fern and bush. The railway line runs between two of these heights a few miles south of the Puniu. On the left hand (east) is the gracefully moulded Kawa Hill; on the right rises Kakepuku Mountain, 1,400 ft. high, a long extinct volcano. Just after passing between these romantically shaped mountains the rails cross the reclaimed farm lands that once were great marshes, the Kawa Swamp, a famous place among the older Maori for tuna, or eels, and wild duck.
Kakepuku is a typical volcanic cone, of bold simplicity of outline, sweeping steeply down in classic lines of rest from a saucer-like crater summit. Its isolation from other heights gives it a character and dignity of its own, and it is not strange that the ancient Maori endowed it with godlike attributes and built poetic legends about it. Its sides are deeply scored with ravines, and remnants of the forests fill its higher gullies. Its neighbour, Kawa, is a wonderful little mountain, presenting on the side facing our railway and the rich pasture levels of the reclaimed swamp, a deep, ferny hollow, the ancient crater, and on the other flank, the eastern, a symmetrical-rounded breast carved by the ancient fort-builders in scarp after scarp of defensive works.
In the folk-lore of the Maori these mountains are husband and wife. The Maori personified such boldly cut hills, and so Kakepuku, with its steep upthrust of shape is the male and rounded Kawa is the gently reclining female. To the south again is a minor mountain, the Puketarata Range on our left. This, say the old storytellers, is the rejected lover of Kawa. Here is the eternal triangle; and there was another lover, too, a volcano called Karewa, which once stood where the Kawa swampy lagoons shone like silver plates among the raupo reeds and flax. It is the legend of the Tongariro volcanic heights over again. Karewa fought Kakepuku for the love of Kawa, but was defeated with furious volleys of lava and hugh fiery rocks, and was compelled to flee. He retreated westward to Kawhia and into its ocean, and there he stands to this day, lone Karewa, called also Gannet Island, in the Tasman Sea, off Kawhia Heads. So Kakepuku won fair Kawa, and remains the overlord of this Waipa Valley.
A stirring tradition, too long to give here in full, tells of the siege of the fortified pa that once stood on Kawa's tattooed nipple of a hill. Tarao, the chief of the pa, realising that the fort must be captured, had a tunnel dug by which he and his people escaped one night under the very feet of their besiegers into the safety of the near forest, and so over the hills and far away. The ancient Maori was as skilful a digger as any modern warrior.
In Winter's Grip.
Ohakune Junction, Main Trunk Line.
Fairy folklore is associated with some of these mountains of the border. High up on Kakepuku there is a deep dingle of a valley, thickly wooded, which was in local belief a haunt of the fairy tribe, patu-paiarche. This part of the mountain, towards the summit, where there are the remains of two ancient trenched forts on the rim of the crater, is a State scenic reserve.
Pirongia Mountain yonder is the chief home of the fairies. Their favoured abode is Hihikiwi, the forested crest of the range. The people say that albinos—we used to see an albino woman at the Puniu—are the offspring of fairy men and Maori women.
Otorohanga (114 miles), a pakeha-Maori township on the Waipa River, at about the old-time head of canoe-nagivation, has a rather curious scrap of history and folk-belief embodied in its name. It means a small portion of food caused by supernatural means to last for a long journey. The story is that a warrior chief setting out from here for Taupo in ancient days had only a little provision (o) for the long route march, but by his prayer-charms he stretched it out (torohanga) so that it sufficed him until he reached his destination—a kind of Maori version of the widow's cruse of oil.
(To be continued.)
Human Engineering
The New Industrial Era
We are made for co-operation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of the upper and lower teeth. To act against one another then is contrary to nature.—Marcus Aurelius.
Industrial progress is depending increasingly upon the recognition by leaders of industry of the importance of the human element.
The maintenance of right relations is dependent upon a proper application of the golden rule, and the modern name for the science of right relations in industry is “Human Engineering.”
Speaking on this subject, Mr. Charles M. Schwab, Chairman of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation, recently said:—
“In their progress during the last half century, engineering and industry have marched side by side. Their development is a remarkable story of scientific achievement. The mobilisation of capital and engineering talent has made possible the large scale industry that is the leading characteristic of the wonderful era of progress in which we live.
“This new industrial order created its own problems—new problems of social and economic aspect requiring the highest type of statesman-like management for their solution. Industry has brought together and welded into single organisations hundreds, sometimes thousands, of human beings with widely different habits of life and thought. For the success and happiness of these human beings, and of society as a whole, it is vitally important that they should adjust their mutual relationships on the basis of fair dealing and co-operation. Here is a problem embodying the recognition of all the differing physical and mental characteristics of individual human beings.
“Need for the solution of this problem brought forth a new concept of the management of business. At the same time it created a new science, a new field of engineering which for want of a better name we call Human Engineering—the practical science of humanising industry and of making the men in it substantial self-respecting workmen, citizens and co-operating factors in the success of the business. This new science recognises that industry is dependent upon mass production, machine processes and technical skill, but that the human element after all determines the progress of a business and its service to the country at large.
“Forward-looking management, as well as farsighted representatives of employees, came to realise that if full benefits were to be had from the creations of the engineers, industry must be viewed as a co-operative undertaking, in the advancement of which every supervisor and every employee was an important factor. They recognised that conflict between capital and labour was destructive of the interests of each; that it was unnecessary and mutually expensive.
“Herein lay a field where expert service in enlisting the interest and confidence and goodwill of the workers became just as important as the study that had been given to the characteristics and utilisation of materials. Out of its solution was to come a new code of economics, a code that aimed not only to provide food and clothing and shelter, but also to elevate society at large and to place a true dignity upon labour, a dignity that would yield a fuller and happier measure of life.
“One cannot reflect on the subject of human engineering without realising the tremendous responsibility that rests upon management in guiding the destiny of mankind.
“What are the reasonable wants of employees, which they have a right to see satisfied as far as conditions of industry permit? I believe they include the payment of fair wages for efficient services; steady, uninterrupted employment; safeguarding of their lives and health, good physical working conditions; a voice in the regulation of conditions under which they work; provision for them to lay up savings, and to become partners in the business through stock ownership; finally, some guarantee of financial independence in old age.
“We have travelled far in our thinking on this fundamental question of reward for service. We have come to have a new viewpoint toward the payment of wages. Our better relationships have brought a clearer understanding of the reciprocal value to national well-being of a class of well paid workers whose buying power is sufficient to take the output of our mass production. We are ambitious to see our workers receive an adequate wage—a wage that is sufficient to afford a worker and
“How to measure and relate output and wages on some fair basis has become an important function of management We now realise the essential benefits derived from relating compensation to the contribution made by the individual, with the result that under the stimulus of measured return for service rendered, there is an increasing tendency for men to take a keener interest in the business much as if they owned it. This applies to workers as well as managers.
“High wages do no good to the man who has no chance to earn them. Hourly and daily rates mean little to the employee who can work only a few days a month or a few months out of the year. Steady employment, therefore, ranks high among the needs of the workman. During the last few years industrial managers have been giving much thought to this question—to the elimination of the evil of unemployment. It has come to be realised that peaks and
Twenty Years Ago.
The staff of the Maintenance Branch, Christchurch in 1908.
“Successful human relatione in industry recognise that the interests of employees and employers are mutual. They must be friends. The very nature of their aim for profit creates an interest in one another's well-being.
“In any human relationships there are, day by day, problems arising in industrial relations which, if not settled with full justice to each, will threaten this bond of friendship. But the need for a medium for preventing or adjusting breaches in relations is not the whole objective of employees and employers. Essentially these two parties have been seeking a medium that would provide a common meeting ground. They have really been seeking for a way of living together which would permit an expression of their personality, and yet cement and increase this friendship. The employee representation movement is such a constructive medium permitting not only settlement of questions on which there is a conflict of interest, but of even more importance, offering an unobstructed channel through which their unity of interest may be promoted.”
(Elsie Morton photo)
The Forest Primaeval.
The world-famed Waipoua Kauri forest, North Auckland.
Wonderful Waipoua
The New Forest Road
“Old trees in their living state are the only things money cannot command.”—Landor.
On the northern peninsula of New Zealand, near Dargaville, is the big tree country, where the stately kauri has been preserved for the nation in two wonderful forests, the Trounson National Park and Waipoua. Miss Morton tells the story of these wonderful trees.
(By Elsie K. Morton)
When summer comes, and Waipoua Forest echoes to the honking and hooting of motor cars, and tourists by the thousand crane their necks to spy the top of the giant kauris, few will give a thought to those who even now are tackling the heartbreaking work of making a road in the depth of winter. All through the short, dark days, gangs of men have been employed at quarrying, crushing, and laying metal on the awful clay morass that stretches through the heart of the forest.
Some day a poet will write a fitting ode to “The Roadmakers of New Zealand,” immortalising the work they have done in making this country habitable. No one who has not travelled in the backblocks in winter, can realise the magnitude of their task, fighting and working as they must, against the fury of the elements. Bridges washed away in sudden flood, landslides and slips piling up tons of rock and debris, sweeping away in brief moments the laborious work of months, the rigours of camp-life in the depth of winter, cut off for months from all the pleasures and comforts of civilisation—yes, I think our backblocks roadmakers might well be sung by a national poet!
But Waipou Forest was a paradise when I passed down that woodland way in the full beauty of midsummer. A large portion of the road had received a running coat of metal, the rest was hard-packed clay, firm and smooth, a perfect motoring road.
All I heard of the beauty of Wonderful Waipoua proved less than the truth. No hurried daytripper was I, no glimpsing the glories of that splendid forest from beneath the hood of a motor car. For a week, I lived on the outskirts of the forest; every day I rode or tramped those winding ways, left the beaten track, and pushed into the heart of the forest. I knew before I left Auckland those simple facts that every good tourist commits to memory beforehand—distance from Auckland, 160 miles, from Dargaville 30 miles, total length of road through the forest sixteen miles, total area 40,606 acres. I had great pleasure in forgetting all these impressive details the moment the wonder and beauty of Waipoua was unfolded before my eyes. One does not think of statistics when brought face to face with one of the sublime works of the Almighty, and such, surely, is the only fitting designation for Waipoua. Other splendid forests there are in New Zealand, many another magnificent bush road, but nowhere else in this land is there a road that runs mile after mile through groves of virgin kauri forest… . Huge grey trunks, flecked with amber light, straight as the columns of some ancient temple, rise from the side of the road, the small, dark foliage spreading out from the crown in stately canopy. From the innumerable twists and turns of the road magnificent panoramas of forest-clad ranges unfold, each crest and spur crowned with collonade of lofty grey columns, rising massive, majestic, above a that company of lesser giants of the forest. The hillsides and valleys are massed with lovely ponga ferns and nikau palms, and a delicate carpet of crepe and kidney ferns is spread beneath the forest trees. When the scars of roadmaking all are healed, and Nature has repaired the ravage, how thrice-lovely will be the Waipoua Forest road! For here the growth is extraordinarily luxuriant, owing to the heavy rainfall (as high as 146 inches in a year).
Here are many rare ferns, shrubs and orchids, here you may find all your old favourites, clematis, hoheria, tawhara, taraire, astelia, miro, kowhai, growing more freely, flowering more luxuriantly
In the coming summer thousands will pass down the Waipoua road, but only to those who linger awhile will be vouchsafed the full beauty of the forest. So leave the beaten road, with its mighty guardians rearing their proud heads high in the sky, and come with me over the fallen log across the Wairau Creek, down the little red-leafed track that leads to mighty Ahuatane, “Spirit of the Forest,” monarch supreme of that forest kingdom.
The sunbeams filter down through the dense foliage, fall in waves of broken light on that vast grey column, nearly fifty feet in circumference,
“The Place is all Awave with Trees.”
—E. B. Browning.
Roadmaker's Tent in the Heart of the Waipoua Forest.
A little sigh goes rippling through his mighty branches, like waves at sunset on a distant shore: silence settles over the forest a little deeper… . What tidings of world-shaking woe, of joy, of terror, of amazing things wrought by man, will the voices of the forest have whispered to mighty Ahuatane, ere that majestic head be laid low?
New Shunting Locomotive
Twenty-four to be built in New Zealand Railway Workshops
It is ten years since any new type of engine has been designed for use on the New Zealand Railways, the last being the Wab type designed in 1918.
Much interest, therefore, centres in the new locomotive (upon which Mr. G. S. Lynde, Chief Mechanical Engineer, and his staff have been working for some time) which is intended to provide the service with a modern type of shunting engine.
The engines are of the 2-6-2 type, having eight-wheeled double bogie tenders.
The accompanying outline drawings give the estimated weights on the axles, and the leading dimensions. These may, of course, be slightly varied as the design is proceeded with, but the diagram indicates approximately the appearance of the engines as they will actually be built.
The superheaters will have 12 elements. The header will be fitted with a combined regulator valve on the superheated side so that the elements will always be full of steam when the engine is in working order. This is the first time this type of superheater has been fitted in New Zealand.
Such auxiliaries as the Westinghouse pump, the turbo-generator, the blower, and the whistle, will be fed with steam from the superheated side of the header.
Boiler feed will be taken through a double check valve placed above the boiler barrel feeding into anti-scaling trays.
The locomotive will have its own electric light equipment.
Line Drawing of the New Shunting Engine.
The trailer truck will be of the Commonwealth patent design. The springing will be compensated, the front truck being compensated with the leading coupled wheel, and the second and third coupled wheels compensated with the trailer truck.
Both Westinghouse automatic and straight air brakes will be provided.
The tender tank slopes downwards at the back end with a view to giving a better outlook from the cab for the engine crew. This innovation will also be appreciated by shunters. The bunker will be self-trimming.
Although it is intended to use this type of engine primarily for shunting purposes, the design is such that the engine will be suitable for suburban passenger traffic, etc., this point having been kept in view in preparing the design.
The boiler will have a large, wide firebox suitable for burning coal of inferior quality.
The weight of the engine in working order will be 36 3/4 tons, but this figure will be increased, if it can possibly be arranged, in order to get more adhesive weight. The tender will weigh, in working order, about 25 1/2 tons.
The following are the leading dimensions:—Cylinders, 14in. × 22in. Heating surface: Firebox 140 sq. ft., tubes 450 sq. ft., flues 196 sq. ft., total 786 sq. ft. Elements, 146 sq. ft.; grate area, 24 sq. ft.; boiler pressure, 180lb. per sq. in.; tractive force, at 80 per cent. of boiler; pressure, 13,800lb.; coal capacity, 3 3/4 tons; water capacity, 2,000 gallons.
Grapes
Within the last nine months several links have been forged in the chain of electrically interlocked stations with three-position colour light signals, on the New Zealand Railway system. The outstanding benefits of the new installations are the better signalling facilities and the greater flexibility and safety of train movements which they give.
The Addington North box was the first to be equipped with the new system, being converted from mechanical to electrical operation on 5th November, 1927. This installation (worked under complete automatic block) was the means of completing the system between Addington North and Middleton shunting and marshalling yards, thus enabling goods road access between the two yards by an independent road for “Up” and “Down” goods traffic. There are various sidings connected with this road, and these are locked and worked by single line switch locks and ground levers.
Illustrating the Old and the New System of Signalling at Addington, Christchurch.
The switch locks control the entry of a train on to the road from either end, and must be normal with points locked before the entering departure signals are operative. The mechanical frame at Addington was retained, and adapted to work with the new system.
Papatoetoe was the next station to be opened, and came into operation a month later, on the 5th December, 1927. This station, in conjunction with the new double line which was extended from Otahuhu, has been of immense benefit in the handling of traffic, the single line having previously had a throttling effect on train movements.
Incidental with the opening of this station, the first section, operating as far as Drury, of single line automatic signalling with three-aspect colour lights, was brought in. The second section (Drury to Mercer) followed a week later.
These are the first sections of single line automatic signalling to be brought into use in the Auckland district. They are being worked under the supervision of a train control officer. A selector telephone worked in conjunction with the automatic signals enables the train control officer to have a complete knowledge of all train movement. The control officer is within call at all times. All train movement is graphed on a train diagram as advice is received from stations, and the graph becomes a visual picture of the moving train service. The constant supervision of the controller enables him to anticipate crossings, and have crossing orders in readiness for issue to train men.
The knowledge of how the work of trains is being carried out at stations is a very important factor, because it results in the speeding up of goods trains, which means considerable economy. By this system the work of goods trains can be arranged systematically to fit in with other traffic movements, and as a result, delays are cut out. Pending the installation of the three-position automatic signalling (which is being pushed forward at the present time) train control is also being worked, under tablet, as far as Frankton.
The train control system has also been installed between Wellington and Marton in the North
To the Wellington-Marton section, the Lambton-Upper Hutt signalling train control has been added, and to the Christchurch-Oamaru section that of the Christchurch-Arthur's Pass, or Midland section of signalling. This latter section has been fitted with telephone call lights (which are known as “T” lights) by means of which the train control officer may intercept a train at an unattended crossing loop for special instructions re crossing, etc.
Home Signals for Auckland and Tauranga Lines, Paeroa Junction.
The indications are displayed by a powerful white light having a block letter “T” painted on the inside of the lens. The light can easily be picked up in daylight for a distance of two or three hundred yards. These indications are exhibited both ways and as soon as any particular loop has been selected the lights remain on until the call has been answered, the opening of the telephone door box restoring the arrangement to “Normal.” (Two photos accompanying this article show the light before and after a call has been made at Moana, which is on the Otira-Stillwater section of the Midland line.)
Train Control Telephone Call Light at Moana (Midland Line) showing Light on.
Paeroa Junction has also to be added to the list of electrically interlocked stations, this station having been opened on the 10th June last. On the day of opening, and since, it has given every satisfaction. This installation comprises a full electric interlocking and is worked (as with other “full electric”) from the station office. The levers total 34, the frame being built by McKenzie and Holland Proprietary Ltd., Melbourne.
Yard shunting movements are controlled by two ground frames, one north and one south, so that shunting can be carried on independently of station control, once permission has been given by lever.
Paeroa is an important junction (and will become increasingly so in the future) because all the new East Coast, Tauranga and Taneatua traffic has to be handled there. As many as four trains at a time have to be re-marshalled, one of the trains (ex Tauranga) having to be turned to complete its journey to Auckland.
Whilst on the subject of electric interlocking there is one more small installation that must not be forgotten. This is at Kensington on the south side of the Dunedin goods yard, and now controls the “inward” and “outward” goods traffic from the main yard to and from the south. This is only a small contribution to the electric control of
Train Control Telephone Call Light, Moana, showing Light Off.
With reference to the extension of three-position colour light automatic signalling overseas there is great enterprise and interest shown by the railway authorities in Great Britain where the system is being speedily adopted for the handling of dense traffic.
The Southern Railway has decided to embark on an expenditure of £150,000 for the installation of colour light signals to replace the existing semaphore signals. This is following on a system, which was installed last year on the Holborn Viaduct to Elephant and Castle and Charing Cross, Cannon Street and Borough Market Junction sections of the line. This latter proved so successful that the railway officials decided that it was the most efficient method, especially in foggy weather, of dealing with the intensive services which are handled on the inner London area.
(Photo, W. W. Stewart.)
Loading Luggage at Auckland Station.
When this is completed the Southern railway will have the most extensive installation of multiple colour light signalling in Europe.
It is an interesting fact that the installation of automatic signalling with alternating current is being energetically pushed forward in all parts of the world and it is worthy of note that in this respect New Zealand led the way throughout the British Empire, being the first country to instal automatic three-position signalling operated by alternating current.
Automatic Signalling and Train Control keep the Wheels Moving.
Myers Cricket Cup
The annual match between the staffs of New-market and Petone Workshops for the Myers Cricket Cup was played at Auckland a few weeks ago, and aroused considerable local interest among railwaymen. The opposing teams were in good form and gave the spectators an exhibition of first-class cricket. The contest resulted in a win for Newmarket by one innings and 38 runs. The cup is therefore held by Newmarket for another year. The nonparticipation of the other workshops (East Town, Addington and Hillside) in these annual contests is much to be regretted, and it is hoped that they will fall in line for the competition next year.
First Joint Air-Rail Service Announced
Forecasts of the early establishment of joint passenger service by railways and air transportation companies have been brought much nearer to realization recently. As reported in the “Railway Age,” the Transcontinental Air Transport, Inc., has been organized by interests identified with the Pennsylvania, the National Air Transport, Inc., the Wright Aeronautical Corporation, the Curtiss Aeroplane and Engine Company, the Ford Motor Company, and others. Although not financially interested, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway will co-operate in the traffic arrangements. Under the proposed schedule, passengers, by riding trains at night and changing to airplanes during the day, will complete the journey between New York and Los Angeles in approximately 48 hours, reducing the time required to make the same trip entirely by railway train more than 36 hours.
This, states the “Age,” is a logical development and one which was not at all unexpected. The public response to the establishment of air passenger service has been remarkable. Almost from the start the demand on the part of travellers for passage on the air lines has been regularly much greater than the limited facilities for passenger transportation offered by nearly all such lines. Large though the United States is, the centres of population between which there is considerable travel and which are separated by much more than one night of train travel are relatively few. On account of this fact, and also on account of the fact that rates for passenger transportation by air are of necessity under present conditions rather high, it has been felt that the passenger business of the air lines would be slow in developing. On the contrary, it is already overtaxing their facilities.
The Napier express, travelling at 40 miles per hour, near Otaki.
It is probably true, however, that the number of passengers who can and will travel by airplane at this time, if opportunity is offered them, is still comparaticely small. It is limited to a large extent by the present high cost of air transportation. More important is the feeling among the public in general that, in spite of evidence to the contrary, air travel is still unsafe. Whether it is safe or unsafe makes little difference; the important point to the transportation man is that a large proportion of the public thinks it is unsafe. The same thing was thought of the railway train a hundred years ago.
To overcome this apprehension of air travel in the public's mind, no more constructive step could be taken than to establish joint rail and air service sponsored by leading railway companies. The public has faith in the ability and safety of the railways. The fact that railways have given their backing to air transportation and thus tacitly testified to their faith in its safety, should go a long way in changing the public's state of mind. Through travel by train at night and by airplane during the day will be much more comfortable, and in the present state of the development of facilities for night flying, will be much more safe. It is a step in advance of allrail travel, but not too long a step.
The joint rail-air service should attract considerable patronage from the start. As it proves its dependability it will attract still more passengers. When more passengers are carried rates can be reduced, and when rates are reduced still more passengers will be attracted, and so on. Thus, the way is being paved for air travel in the United States on a large scale.
The intended flight of Kingsford Smith and his companions from Australia to New Zealand is being planned with the kind of thoroughness that should ensure success. If the flight proves successful it will focus public attention on air travel here much more than in the past, and may ultimately lead to the establishment of joint rail and air services for inter-island communication.
Barltrop
Economy in fuel consumption combined with efficient methods of power production and the abolilion of smoke, are amongst the most important questions associated with workshops engineering.
Perhaps one of the most difficult problesm with which the Railway Department has been faced, both from its own and the public viewpoint, is that which is popularly referred to as the “smoke nuisance.” This problem does not concern ourselves alone; most railway systems and large manufacturing plants are faced with it. However, the increasing use of electricity and the utilisation of fuels other than coal, have done much towards the solution of the smoke problem. In the scheme of workshops re-organisation on our railways, the question of fuel for power purposes has been closely considered (to the end of abolishing smoke, and conducing to economy) and fuel oil as a substitute for coal is now being employed.
As against coal, the process of combustion of fuel oil is perfect, and the desired results are obtained without variation or effort. Moreover, one of the most outstanding features of fuel oil is the cleanliness with which it can be handled and burnt in comparison with coal. Another point in favour of fuel oil is that the component parts are capable of being completely consumed; there are no harmful gases given off, and smoke is entirely eliminated.
Perhaps the most objectionable gas which can be generated by ordinary fuels is sulphur dioxide, which has a very pungent odour. Fuel oil is the least offender in this respect, having a sulphur content of only .098 per cent. as compared with coke, 1.5 per cent; and coal, which is as high as 4 per cent.
To meet the demands of modern engineering practice the Department has provided for the exclusive use of fuel oil in all branches of work in the workshops.
At Hillside, a 5,000 gallon storage tank (illustration No. 1 on opposite page), has been installed in a specially constructed pit, beneath the ground level, for the purpose of receiving oil by gravity from the fuel oil conveying wagons.
The oil is pumped out of the tank by means of an electric centrifugal pump (illustration No. 2) and supplied through service pipes at a pressure of 20lbs. per square inch, to vantage points in the shops. This certainly depicts the simplicity and cleanliness with which oil is handled.
A typical coal and coke heap is shown for comparative purposes—illustration No. 3).
All furnaces that were originally fired with coal fuel are now replaced with furnaces of better design, and operated entirely by fuel oil. It has already been found that a saving of at least 50 per cent. has been effected in this way.
Apart from the economies effected by the installation of oil furnaces, they have the additional advantage that they may be placed in any desired position, being in this respect more accommodating for shop lay-out purposes than the ordinary coal furnace.
Illustration No. 4 shows the tool hardening plant that has been installed in the new tool room at Hillside, in which all tool and die steels are made up and treated. This work was originally performed in a Smith's forge. The three furnaces in the plant are heated by fuel oil.
The High Quality of British Steel
In an interesting reference to the trend of the steel industry in Great Britain, Sir Robert Hadfield stressed the fact that the average quality of British-made steel was superior to that of the steel produced by other countries.
“We in this country,” he said, “are concerned primarily in maintaining our output of best quality steels for a great variety of purposes. In the production of special steels we easily hold our own… . To-day the progress of the world in the highest and most important branches depends on the production of alloy steels of the highest quality, enabling engineering products to be constructed which were formerly
Modern Methods in our Workshops
Illustration No. 1.
A 5,000 Gallon Storage Tank for Fuel Oil at Hillside.Modern Methods in our Workshops
Illustration No. 2. Two Electrically-driven Centrifugal Fuel Oil Pumps which deliver 500 gallons per hour.Modern Methods in our Workshops
Illustration No. 3. A Typical Coal and Coke Heap.Modern Methods in our Workshops
Illustration No. 4. Tool Hardening Plant at Hillside.
These are reassuring words. Coming from a man who speaks with inside knowledge as does Sir Robert Hadfield, they can be accepted as an authoritative pronouncement upon the strong position of one of Britain's greatest industries.
“….. And from the loud-resounding rocks below,
Dash'd in a cloud of foam, it sends aloft
A hoary mist, and forms a ceaseless shower … .”
—Thomson.
(Government Publicity Photo.)
Sutherland Falls (1904 feet high), Milford Track, South Island, New Zealand.
Hastings
The foundation of the Hillside Railway Workshops Library emanated from a meeting of employees held on 5th June, 1884, the meeting being presided over by the late Mr. A. L. Beattie. At that meeting the following resolution was carried:
“That immediate steps be taken with a view to forming a library and that a committee consisting of two representatives from each shop, together with the various foremen be set up and empowered to take the necessary action and report to the next meeting.”
At the next meeting a permanent committee was set up, with Mr. Beattie as President, Mr. W. R. Cole, Hon. Secretary, and Mr. R. Henderson, Hon. Treasurer. A number of canvassers were also appointed, and they were very successful in obtaining both donations of money and books from the employees and from a large number of leading citizens. The first library building was erected early in 1885, and Mr. R. Farrant was appointed librarian. At the first annual meeting, in June, 1885, rules were adopted and the late Mr. T. A. Peterkin (who had been appointed Workshops Manager) became President of the committee. On September 25th, 1885, Mr. H. A. Lawson was appointed librarian and caretaker on a salary of £9 per year—a position he held, with a break of but a few months, until he was accidentally killed in June 1926. The annual balance sheet presented at the annual meeting in June, 1886, showed that the subscriptions amounted to £35 0s. 6d., and there were donations of £8 10s.
Established in 1884.
Interior of old Library.
An interesting feature of the committee's activities about this time was the lectures given under the auspices of the Library, two of the lecturers being Mr. R. E. N. Twopenny, editor of the “Otago Daily Times,” and the Rev. D. Dutton, who is still taking an active interest in public affairs. (A Mutual Improvement Society was also started, but it apparently did not have a successful career.)
Looking back over the earlier records of the Library it is impossible not to notice the great amount of work done by Mr. Stothart. He took over the office of secretary on May 26th, 1887, and from that date the organisation of the Library made rapid strides. It can be said of him that he laid faithfully the foundations of the library as we know it to-day, Mr. Stohart held office until his death in June, 1905, and was succeeded by Mr. D. Harris Hastings, who still holds the position.
It is interesting to note the names of the past presidents of the library. They were: Messrs. A. L. Beattie, T. A. Peterkin, Professor Scott, James Edin, S. P. Evans, J. D. Harris, E. E. Gillon, G. E. Richardson, J. Carson, E. L. Haskins, H. G. Brooks, and W. H. Johnston.
Another gentleman who did valuable work for the Library was Mr. R. Farrant, who was the active vice-president for about five and twenty years. Presidents came and went, but Mr. Farrant was in reality the permanent chairman, and, as such, a tower of strength to the organisation. After the death of Mr. H. A. Lawson in 1906 the position of paid librarian was held by Mr. T. Miles, who retained office until his retirement from the service on June 29th, 1922. Mr. A. H. Dyer was appointed in his stead, and still holds the position.
The Hillside Library has been exceptionally fortunate in its librarians, all of whom devoted considerable time, energy and courteousness to help to make the institution popular. The present occupant of the office (Mr. Dyer) is eminently suited for the position and too much praise cannot be given him for the manner in which he fulfils his duties. (He is assisted by Mr. J. Turkington in the capacity of assistant librarian.) Mention also should be made of the services rendered by our past hon. treasurers: Messrs R. Henderson, G. Applegarth (for over 20 years), A. H. Cooper, W. L. McEvoy, and by our present treasurer, Mr. W. L. Routledge.
Commencing in 1884 with two boxes of books (and about £40 in money, proceeds of collection), the Library to-day contains on its shelves over 15,000 volumes, including an excellent reference department, mainly devoted to works on Mechanical Engineering, etc. Fiction is naturally the main feature, and all the latest works are secured as soon as published. Thirty magazines a month and twelve weekly papers furnish lighter reading for the subscribers. In addition, the Department contributes nine excellent and up-to-date technical magazines, this number being supplemented by others paid for by the subscribers.
The revenue for the first year was, as previously stated, £43 10s. 6d. The year Mr. Stothart gave up office it was £80 10s. 6d, and last year it was £216 6s. 7d. There are about 300 subscribers, a number of whom take out more than one book each, some of them taking as many as five.
The social side of the Library has not been neglected. The Department built a Social Hall, which was opened with a concert on October 25th, 1912, a piano being purchased by the men subsequently, out of the proceeds of concerts—one of which (or rather a bazaar) netting a profit of £73 7s.
Housing 15,000 Volumes
Interior of the New Library Attached to the Social Hall
During all the years of its existence the Library has received very generous support from the Department, which has not only fostered it by the gift of technical publications, etc., but has never refused any reasonable request made by the committee.
The welfare of the staff in this connection was not overlooked by the Prime Minister and Minister of Railways, the Hon. J. G. Coates, when he authorised in the scheme of workshops reorganisation the building of a commodious combined Social Hall and Library.
The new Library is 49ft. 6in. × 30ft., and has a separate entrance in the new building. The internal fittings and the lighting (both natural and artificial) leave nothing to be desired. In every respect the Library is well equipped, and a source of gratification and pride to the subscribers and the employees generally.
The success of the Hillside Library during the past forty years has been due to the wholehearted and unselfish work of the long list of past and present officials. The employees have at all times liberally supported the Library and looked upon it with pride. In going over to the new building the present committee feel justified in stating that when the time arrives for them to relinquish office, they will be able to hand over to their successors a private Library second to none in the Dominion.
(Government Publicity Photo.)
Mirrored in the Crystal Waters of Peter's Pool
A recent photograph of Franz Josef Glacier, West Coast, South Island.
Young
(Concluded.)
It comes as a surprise to most to find that Franz Josef glacier approaches almost to the narrow strip of plain between the mountains and the coastline, and that the tourist is landed by the service car almost at its base.
Franz Josef is one of the most remarkable glaciers in the world, in that it descends to a lower altitude than any glacier outside the polar regions. It is about eight miles long, and in that distance drops from over 8000 feet above sea level to about 700 feet at its base. Its lower portion flows between bush-clad mountains, and there is a wonderful contrast between snow-capped peaks, dark green forest, rugged cliffs and the delicately white and blue tinged glacier.
What a thrill the tourist receives when suddenly emerging from the bush near the Tatare River, the glory of the Waiho Gorge is unfolded before his eyes. There, in the centre of the picture, surrounded on all sides by gaunt cliffs and rugged snow-capped peaks, is the river of crystal glistening in the sunlight. Lower down are the gorge hills covered with the dense forest for which the West Coast is famed. That first sight seems to drive away all weariness and dull care, and the threshold of Host Graham's Hostelry is corssed with jubilant anticipation of the days ahead.
Once in the capable hands of the two Graham Brothers, there is no further need to worry. To them this region of the Southern Alps is an open book, and, according to the desire of the tourist, they will arrange gentle jaunts or alpine exploits of the spectacular kind.
The glacier, however, is the first point of interest to most. The tourist, therefore, usually repairs to the equipment shed, and dons spiked boots, and with alpinstock in hand sets out with his party for the valley of ice—as did the writer. A few hundred yards from the hotel he passes by a fine traffic suspension bridge over the Waiho River. (On our last trip this river was a raging torrent, carrying down to the sea huge blocks of ice.) The three-mile walk to the face of the glacier seems but a few steps, for the track passes through avenues of monarchs of the forest, beautiful glades luxuriant with Prince of Wales feather ferns, with every here and there peeps of the raging river, the snow-capped peaks, or our objective, the glacier itself.
At a point where the full glory of the glacier unfolds itself to view, we halted and had lunch. Then, crossing a small arm of the river (over a plank and stepping stones) we started the climb up the terminal moraine, and at last stood on solid ice. Here, the guide goes first and cuts step after step, and we follow, keeping carefully in the cut steps, for often the ice is too slippery to stand on, even where the flat spot does exist, until the surface is broken.
The progress made depends largely on the number in the party, which on the occasion of which I write, consisted of about forty persons. Progress, therefore, was fairly slow. For two hours we wended our way up hills and down valleys of ice, making detours round the huge crevasses (caused during the rapid descent of the glacier into a more temperate climate), and viewing the variety of delicately tinged ice formations. Returning to the base of the glacier, we walked round to where the Waiho River belches forth from the mouth of a huge ice cave.
A walk such as this satisfies many, but the full glory of the glacier cannot be realised unless the trip to Defiance Hut is made. This hut is situated at a point about three miles up the glacier, at an altitude of 2500 feet. From here a wonderful view of the whole length of the glacier is obtained. At the head of the glacier are the Minarets and Graham's Saddle, which are in the main divide about 9000 feet above sea level. Graham's Saddle is the pass used to cross over into the Tasman Valley and on to the Hermitage, a trip only made by those with some mountaineering experience. Below Graham's Saddle is a gigantic basin consisting of huge snowfields, from which the glacier descends by a huge icefall unsurpassed for beauty anywhere in the Alps. A wonderful view of this fall with its enormous pinnacles of ice and vast crevasses is obtained from the Defiance Hut.
In 1913, when I made my first trip to Cape Defiance, there was no hut, and our party slept (in sleeping bags) under a huge rock. I can well remember being awakened in the middle of the night by the moon rising over the main divide at the head of the glacier. All the ghost stories ever heard or imagined were dwarfed into insignificance by one glance at the glistening whiteness all round, the stillness broken
(From this point, in 1913, I made the ascent of Mt. Moltke, which is over 7000 feet in height and covered with perpetual snow. The weather, however, precluded any attempt at the climb this year.) After a climb of 1000 feet up a slope of loose rubble, one of the most beautiful of alpine gardens is passed through. Here is delight for any lover of Nature, especially about the month of February, when the flowers are at their best. Then, higher up some easy rock formations are encountered, until finally the eternal snows are reached, and the mountain topped after about three hours’ climbing.
The peak in question is so far west of the main divide that one of the most magnificent views in the Alps is obtained from it. Away below is the narrow strip of plain with the Pacific Ocean beyond, on the right the Franz Josef Glacier, and on the left the Fox Glacier, while behind is peak after peak as far north or south as the eye can see. Mt. Cook and Mt. Tasman appear only a short distance away, although roughly 20 miles. From this vantage point the full beauty of the Franz Josef is seen, and a wonderful view of the huge snowfields from which the glacier falls.
A glimpse of the beautiful Buller River, West Coast, South Island.
While making a cup of tea with a spirit lamp on this peak, the mists gradually rolled in off the sea, first of all enveloping the lowlands, then gradually rising higher, until only the snow-capped peaks jutted from the mist like huge tombstones, and, finally enfolding us, shut us off completely from the outside world.
After a long halt at the alpine garden on the way down, we reached Cape Defiance for lunch. We then recrossed the glacier and arrived back at the hotel in time for dinner.
There are many other points of interest to be visited in this region if the tourist has time. A day on Lake Mapourika is well worth while, and the short walks to Canavan's Knob, Callery Gorge, and Peter's Pool are very interesting. But perhaps the most interesting of all, apart from the glacier, is the hot spring which is situated in the bed of the Waiho River about a mile above the hotel. The water is pumped up to a bathhouse on the bank, and many descend from the glacier on this side of the river to take a refreshing dip in the mineral waters after the strenuous exercise of climbing.
The West Coast Express makes this trip one easily undertaken, and it is no wonder that every year sees the tourist traffic to this delightful region on the increase, for indeed it is one of Nature's fairylands.
By Those Who Like us
From the Secretary, Roxburgh-Millers Flat Branch of the N.Z. Farmers’ Union, to the District Traffic Manager, Dunedin:—
I have been asked, on behalf of the farmers of Roxburgh and Millers Flat District to write thanking you for the provision of the special train for the prompt removal of sheep from the Mt. Benger Saleyards at Teviot, on 26th of last month.
Your action in meeting the needs of this District has been the cause of much favourable comment amongst sheepowners. Realising the great difficulties connected with the supply of sheep trucks during this part of the season we would like you to know we appreciate what has been done for us.
* * *
From the secretary, the North Canterbury Sheepfarmers’ Co-operative Freezing Export and Agency Company, Ltd., Christchurch, to the General Manager of Railways, Wellington:—
Now that our season is drawing to a close we wish to record our appreciation of the efficiency and courtesy of the staff of the local Transport Office. In particular we wish to thank Mr. McKay for his prompt and courteous attention to our requirements during a season in which difficulties arose on account of the heavy demand on trucks for perishable traffic. We have had every attention and consideration, and the local staff has handled its work in a businesslike and efficient manner, under what we believe have been trying conditions.
* * *
From the Secretary, New Zealand Bowling Association, Christchurch, to Mr. F. Pawson, Railway Business Agent, Christchurch:—
In connection with the recent tours of the Victorian and South Australian Bowlers through the Dominion, I have been directed to convey to your Department the sincere thanks of the New Zealand Bowling Association for the admirable manner in which the requirements of the parties were catered for during their stay in the Dominion.
Various members of the teams expressed their appreciation of the arrangements made for their comfort, which were all that could be desired.
* * *
In reference to the recent successful Farmers' Excursion to Southland, the following letter was sent to the District Traffic Manager, Invercargill, by the Provincial Secretary of the New Zealand Farmers' Union (Southland Provincial District):—
“At the final meeting of the Committee, representing the Union and A. and P. Association, which was formed for the purpose of arranging entertainment in connection with the Canterbury Farmers’ visit, reference was made to the great courtesy shown by all the Railway staff to the Committee and the excursionists during their visit to Southland. The Committee would appreciate it if you would convey to your officers and staff their appreciation for the assistance that was given on every occasion that it was required.
It was, indeed, a pleasure to be associated with the Railway staff during the visit.”
* * *
From William M. Kerr, Westport, to the District Traffic Manager, Christchurch:—
I have had recently to forward six cases from Inangahua Junction to Ashburton.
Each case contained fragile articles, such as wedding presents in glass, doulton ware and pictures, also a large quantity of crockery ware.
Word has been received that everything arrived safely and that not an article was cracked or broken.
I am glad to be able to express thanks and satisfaction to your Department for the careful and safe delivery of so much breakable and valuable goods.
McDonald
“From coupler-flange to spindle guide
I see Thy Hand, O God
Predestination in the stride
O’ yon connecting-rod.”
—Kipling.
About 1812 various other forms of rack rail engines were built, one type having “legs” which worked up and down like the hind legs of a horse, and thus pushed itself along the road.
“Puffing Billy” was built by Hedley in 1813. It had smooth wheels which ran on smooth rails. This famous locomotive was, in 1863, passed into retirement and is now a relic at South Kensington. From the date of the introduction of “Puffing Billy” rails were strengthened to allow heavier engines to be built. In 1816 George Stephenson patented a locomotive that could travel at ten miles per hour.
The next important step was taken when the railway was opened between Stockton and Darlington, in 1825. At first this line, eleven miles long, was intended for coal traffic, but passengers were soon carried. Much opposition, however, was given to this venture, one learned individual observing that he could “eat all the coal that that particular railway could carry.”
The Liverpool and Manchester Railway was the first of any size to open its line for freight and passenger traffic. This was in 1830, the Duke of Wellington being in attendance when the line was opened.
A rather unfortunate accident occurred on that occasion, Mr. Huskisson, M.P., being struck and killed by the now famous “Rocket.”
About this time also the directors of the London and Midland Railway, in doubt about the form of transport to employ (whether locomotives or engines of the stationary haulage type), offered a prize of £500 for the best locomotive to work under certain conditions.
This trial, known as the Railhill Contest, resulted in a victory for George Stephenson and the “Rocket.” A Scottish engine, called the “Perseverance,” built by Mr. Burstall of Leith, failed to live up to its name and was withdrawn from the contest.
It may be of interest to quote a periodical of that time. “The Scotsman” in referring to this great contest said: “The experiments at Liverpool have established principles which will give greater impulse to civilisation than it has received from any single cause since the press first opened its gates of knowledge to the human species at large.” It is also interesting to note the attitude of the leading men of the time in regard to the new form of transportation.
Scientific men amongst others declared that the carriages could not travel at 20 miles per hour, as at that speed the wheels would merely spin on their axles and the carriages would remain stationary!
In 1830 the railway conquest of the world definitely began. After much opposition the London and Birmingham Railway was opened in 1838, the North Midland in 1841 and the Great Western in 1838.
In Scotland the first railway (between Kilmarnock and Troon) was constructed by the Duke of Portland, horses being employed to haul the wagons.
A humorous incident occurred at the opening of one railway in Scotland.
Their being no locomotive when the first railway was completed, the spectators were amazed to observe the Directors of the Company, sitting in the first wagon, holding large and strong umbrellas to be filled by the following wind and thus propel the carriages along! The ten years following were years of great progress in the construction of railways in Britain. A network of lines commenced to spread itself over the country. For some years, however, these lines catered mostly for people of means and neglected the claims of the masses. By 1860 it was realised that the thirdclass passengers were going to be the backbone of the passenger traffic and so better accommodation was provided for them.
In those early days the first class passenger had the railway journey improved for him, by making the journey in his own private coach, which was placed on a carriage truck. Such use of private coaches, however, was limited to persons of quality who could afford such means of conveyance.
Owing to the enmity between the old and new form of transport in England the ordinary stage coach was not used in this way, but in France means were provided for transferring the bodies of stage coaches from their own wheels, on to specially built railway trucks. The coach, loaded
The first man to introduce luxury in railway travel was G. Pullman, a Chicago contractor.
Pullman cars were first built in 1864 and first introduced into Britain (by the Midland Railway Company) in 1873. These cars were staffed by the Pullman Company and ran on the West Coast route between England and Scotland.
In 1879 dining carriages were introduced.
All carriages at this time were independent and lavatory accommodation was provided only in special coaches. Corridor carriages began to make their appearance, but only to give access to lavatories.
However, in 1892, the Great Western Railway ran corridor trains, connected up with the vestibules throughout the train. Since then, corridor trains have become common on all railways with any length of line.
Many people of to-day consider that railways have reached their zenith; but this view is not shared by the best authorities. The railways are still capable of immense development and service to humanity. And then there is their appeal to the imagination of young and old.
Across the Tasman.
Photos, F. Cole, N.Z.R.
Top, from left: Suburban electric train, Melbourne. Electrified area of Melbourne Yard.
Bottom: Flinders St., Station Yard (from roof of Rly. Institute Building), Gembrook Railway—2ft. 6in. gauge.
Whatever be the future of railways we will, so long as we live, always carry with delight the memory of our first railway journey, and, with the poet, exclaim:—
“The Hell of Waters! where they howl and hiss
And boil in endless torture.”
—Byron, Childe Harold.
(Government Publicity photo.)
Pohutu Geyser, Rotorua
This is one of the finest Geysers in New Zealand, and plays to a height of 100ft.—sometimes for hours at a time.
Dollimore
The living waters of Geyserland have exercised a hypnotic attraction upon mankind throughout time. Scientific explanation hardly satisfies the love of the magical (common to most of us), inspired by the wonderful sights found in the central thermal arca of New Zealand, an area extending from White Island to Rotorua and Wairakei.
But as curiosity cannot wholly be appeased (although greatly entertained) by the remarkable Maori legends, retailed by the guides, regarding the geyser phenomenon, the following account is given in the hope that it may help visitors to an intelligent understanding of one phase of Nature's tireless energy.
Of all the features of the present stage of New Zealand's volcanic history, the most outstanding is probably the geyser. Geyser-activity is a phase of volcanic action that occurs in many parts of the world. This phenomenon may be seen, for instance, in the sub-artic wastes of Iceland, in the remote uplands of mysterious Thibet, and in the famous Yellowstone Park of North America.
New Zealand, however, possesses the world's greatest geyser-group, and that renowned Thermal District of which Rotorua and Wairakei are the chief centres, displays geyser-activity in endless variety, and in a multiplicity of form such as the older countries cannot offer, and provides a fruitful field for original study and research. Here we may trace the “life history” of the geyser through every stage, from the simple furmarole that is the genesis, to the dry, sinter-ringed orifice that betokens the ultimate extinction of life and action.
In this brief article it is impossible to do more than touch upon the salient features of this spectacular manifestation of thermal energy. I shall therefore endeavour to outline briefly the researches that have developed the present accepted theory of the causes of geyser-action.
The word, “geyser,” is of Icelandic origin, and may be interpreted liberally as “that which gushes, or spouts forth.”
At the headwaters of the White River, and nearly thirty miles from Hecla, the volcano of Iceland, is a group of boiling springs, the three largest of which are called the Great and the Little Geysers, and the Strokr. It is from the two firstnamed that the term is derived, and it is from the scientific investigation of these pools, particularly the Great Geyser, that our present knowledge of the subject is in large measure due.
The first scientific theory advanced to explain the cause of eruption in geysers was that of one Mackenzie, who, in 1811 suggested that the expansion of imprisoned steam brought about the characteristic display. Mackenzie's theory inferred the existence of a subterranean reservoir connected with the geyser. It was submitted that steam collected in the dome-like roof of this underground cavern, and that by reason of the pressure exerted by the weight of the water in the well of the geyser, or by the ingress of further water from below, or because of both, this imprisoned steam expanded until it attained sufficient power to escape violently by means of the well and carry the superincumbent mass of water with it. It is a well-known fact that steam held under pressure expands, and this was considered to be the fundamental principle of geyser activity.
Until comparatively recent times little further progress had been made in the scientific investigation of the geyser, and it was not until the French geologist, Robert, discovered that the water in the depths of the Great Geyser of Iceland registered a temperature considerably above the point at which water boils at the surface, that the earlier and simpler hypothesis was abandoned.
This discovery was supplemented by the researches of Descloiseaux, and the scientific work of Bunsen, Tyndall, and others. Bunsen had demonstrated that water under pressure will remain liquid at a temperature very much above that of the ordinary boiling point. When in this
Professor J. W. Gregory, a learned authority, puts the matter very clearly and succinctly when he states that “hot water at the bottom of a tube may be prevented from boiling, and thus kept superheated, by the weight of the water in the upper part of the tube. If the pressure be suddenly removed, then the water will burst into steam with explosive violence, and the water in the upper part of the tube will discharge in a geyser-like jet.”
If the water in the bottom of a geyser well is superheated, and either the load be reduced, or the water be heated to a temperature at which the weight of the overlying mass is insufficient to keep the lower water liquid, then the geyser will discharge by a sudden eruption.
The supply of further heated water from subterranean feeding channels to the bottom of the tube will raise the temperature of the water therein above the limit of superheating at that depth and it will therefore burst into steam and lift the whole of the water in the well.
To Geyserland!
Auckland-Rotorua Express.
It will be recognised that, given a plentiful supply of superheated water or steam, and a long tube of comparatively small section, geyser-action is probable. Occasionally, however, the conditions may not be conducive to condensation and the steam escapes in a continuous jet. The famous Blow-Hole of Kerapiti at Wairakei is an outstanding example.
In the case of geysers, the water near the surface tends to lose its high degree of temperature and in just such time as is necessary for the superheated steam or waters in the depths of the well to attain sufficient force to overcome the pressure of the heavier surface water, geyser-action is not only possible, but inevitable.
This, then, is the explanation of the more or less regularly intermittent nature of the displays, and the cause of eruption.
A geyser in a state of quiescence or equilibrium may frequently be brought into action in the following ways:
(a) By removing the pressure on the superheated depths through baling out the surface water, or
(b) By lowering the specific gravity of the surface water and its tension. (The popular method is to place soap in the geyser well.)
There are many theories bearing on the origin of the superheated water or steam. Some hold that it is derived from surface percolations which have penetrated deep down into that central magma—the heated “bowels of the earth”—which it is believed forms the core, as it were, of the globe, while others aver that it comes from the primaeval waters imprisoned in that central magma.
These waters welling up through the rocks are heavily mineralised, the most common of the ingredients which they contain being silica in various forms. The beautiful coralline formations about the mouth of a geyser are due to the deposition of these silicates. This material is known as siliceous sinter or geyserite, and was once thought to be deposited by the cooling of the waters, but it is now believed that the actual deposition takes place through the agency of living algae—minute living plants of a low order—which have the power of extracting the mineral from the scalding waters in which they live.
Dr. A. S. Herbert, for many years Government Balneologist at Rotorua, sums up the situation thus in his interesting volume “The Hot Springs of New Zealand”: “….the geysers of New Zealand….are fumaroles whose steam has condensed into boiling water in the geyser tubes; and….this water is from time to time superheated by the excess of fresh bursts of steam to a temperature above its boiling point. In some cases, at any rate, the geyser is modified by the cold surface water which exerts a restraining or valve action, and which is in its turn superheated by the steam.”
“Men may fight and lose the battle, and yet that which they fought for may come to pass.”
Of Feminine Interest.
Modes for the Spring.
Spring mornings in the country or town find the smart woman dressed almost in uniform, simple and very suitable. Plaits appear at the sides of the skirt and the blouse of this smart jumper model closes in surplice fashion.
* * *
‘Blue Room” Dance.
A very successful dance (under the name of the Blue Room Dance), was given by several of the young ladies of the staff of Head Office in the Oddfellows’ Hall, on Tuesday, 3rd July. A delightful programme of music was arranged, and a most enjoyable evening was spent by over 200 guests. The hall was tastefully decorated in blue with balloons, streamers and novelty sketches, giving an unusual but pleasing effect. It is hoped that the committee will again have the pleasure of entertaining members of the staff and their friends at another dance to be held in the near future.
* * *
A New Hat.
When nerves get frayed and frazzled, when everything goes topsy-turvy, when if you were living in the old mid-Victorian days you would just go off and have a good cry, that's the time to—
Buy a new hat!
If needn't be an expensive hat, but it ought to be a gay hat—a smart and jaunty hat, a bright and cheerful hat.
For there's nothing that will so quickly restore morale, nothing that will make the whole world sing a new song—no, not even a bequest from an unknown uncle will have the same blithesome effect as a new hat.—“Ladies’ Home Journal.”
* * *
Varying the Breakfast Menu.
Variety is indeed the spice of life, and is there any time in the whole long day when one needs a little spice more than in the morning, whether the morning is a snappy cold one, when it is hard to get up, a delightful spring one, when it is hard to think about work, or a sticky hot one, when it is hard to confront a day at all? So the good housewife who wants to send her family forth 100 per cent. efficient for the day's work or pleasure will try to get as much variety as possible into her breakfast menu.
Variety is not expensive; it costs thought only. The table should look as attractive as possible when the family first gathers there because daintiness and appeal can do much more in the morning when many people feel so apathetic about food. Spotless tablecloth, attractive china, a blossom or two in the centre of the table, or perhaps a pot of ferns, and some appetising fruit or fruit juice make an instant appeal.
It is no more expensive to have five or six different kinds of cereals in the house at one time, alternate them, than to have one kind only.
Toast is generally used on the breakfast table, but even toast gets monotonous. Try varying the manner of preparing it; French toast makes an excellent breakfast dish; cinnamon and powdered sugar sprinkled over the hot buttered toast is delicious, and toasted strips of bread, piled log cabin fashion, are pleasing to the eye besides making a slight change from the regular slices.
Intemperate Blame
Under the above heading the “Taihape Daily Times” deals trenchantly with the level crossing situation. Its editorial reads as follows:—
An amazing and certainly most intemperate and inexcusable attack on the railway authorities is published in an editorial in the Wanganui morning paper of to-day. The subject of this insensate attack is a level crossing fatality which occurred last Tuesday near Wanganui, and which most regrettably, was attended with loss of life. With these elementary if tragic facts burning in his mind, the writer of the article in question proceeded to apportion the blame, and stated that ‘the red roll of railway tragedies is a tragic record of the incompetence or callousness of the authorities in regard to ensuring the safety of the public.’ This is a very serious statement to make—so serious, in fact, that it invites sharp resentment not only from the railway authorities, but also from the higher authorities. When and where has a fatality occurred in which the circumstances even remotely justified a charge of incompetence or callousness being levelled at the authorities? The task of making all the railway crossings in New Zealand, or even the majority of them, absolutely ‘fool-proof’ is, at the present time, an impossible one. The authorities have cudgeled their brains for years past to devise some means of making motorists and others take ordinary precautionary measures when approaching crossings, but in vain. It would probably not be an exaggeration to say that most motorists, if they were in a mood to be quite frank, would admit that, at times, they take risks at crossings that are not fair to the railway authorities. Perhaps in ninety-nine instances out of a hundred, these risks may be taken with impunity, but it is in the hundredth that death wins, and then, according to the writer of the article under review, the railway authorities must shoulder all the blame. But the climax of the scathing indictment had not been reached, for the writer was evidently in the grip of a fine frenzy and worse was to come. ‘All the excuses in the world,’ the article states, ‘will not eradicate (erase) those innumerable names from the red roll of the crossing or restore to their relatives the men, women and children who have been done to death.’ This is nothing else but mischievious nonsense. When have the authorities been guilty of any act of deliberate and premeditated neglect that would justify the cruel charge implied in these words, ‘done to death?’ If the ‘Chronicle’ knows of them why does it not declare them? Moreover, if it knows of a practicable plan whereby crossing fatalities can altogether be obviated, why does it not announce it?
Joke Wit and Humour
“I just gave the doctor £5 on our account,” said the young husband one evening to his wife.
“Oh, darling!” she cried. “Two more payments and the baby is ours.”
* * *
A farmer had hired a new “Handy man” who knew absolutely nothing about farm life.
“Come here,” said the farmer, “I'll show you how to milk a cow.”
“Don't you think, sir,” replied the new one, “that I had better start on a calf?”
* * *
Teacher: “Johnnie, give me a sentence using the word ‘diadem.’”
Johnnie: “People who drive on to the railroad crossings without looking diadem sight quicker than those who Stop, Look and Listen.”
* * *
Wife (suddenly struck with brilliant idea): “I shouldn't attempt to mend it, dear. Let's leave it here and go home by train.”
Diner: “Waiter, what is this stuff you have brought me?”
Waiter: “Cottage pudding, sir.”
Diner: “Ah, I thought so! I can taste the plaster and the wallpaper.”
“Why did your wife leave you?” asked the lawyer.
“I don't know,” replied the husband. “I remember I was just wiping the gravy from my hair…”
“The gravy from your hair! How could….”
“She threw it. But I must admit I had thrown the soup at her, but then she had broken a teacup over my head.”
“Why?”
“Because I burned her hat when she slit my new overcoat.”
“Slit your new overcoat?”
“Yes, because I threw a book at her and upset the dining-room table. Oh, I bet that's why she left! It wasn't my turn.”
* * *
The earth makes a resolution every twenty-four hours.
The difference between air and water is that air can be made wetter and water can not.
We are now masters of steam and eccentricity.
Gravity is chiefly noticeable in the autumn when the apples are falling from the trees.
The axis of the earth is an imaginary line on which the earth takes its daily routine.
Electricity and lightning are of the same nature, the only difference being that lightning is often several miles long while electricity is only a few inches.
* * *
Child (to stranger in a railway carriage):
“Daddy, Daddy!”
Mother: “Hush darling. That isn't daddy; it's a gentleman.”
* * *
Muriel had been to the zoo for the first time, and was giving her grandmother a long account of what she had seen.
“And which animal did you like best, dear?” asked her grandmother when Muriel had finished.
“Oh, the elephant!” was the reply. “It was wonderful to see him pick up buns with his vaccum-cleaner!”
* * *
Patron, crossly): “Say, waiter, what are these black spots in my cereal?”
Waiter (after close inspection): “Dunno, sir, unless it's some of them vitamines everyone is talking about now.”
Wireless on Trains
The story of the application of wireless telegraphy to a moving train and the progress that radio has made in the transportation field during the past few years has been interestingly told by Mr. George T. Bell, of Montreal, former passenger traffic manager of the Grand Trunk Railways.
Mr. Bell, who took a keen interest in the early experiments, spoke of the many obstacles that confronted the engineers in efforts to interest scientists in Montreal. The first experiments, he explained, were tried with complete success early in October, 1902, on a special train which started from Montreal, the point selected for the experiment being Laprairie, about fourteen miles from Montreal, from which place the first railway train in Canada was run in 1837. Of special interest was the fact that on October 13, 1902, the first public demonstration of the application of wireless to a fast-moving train was staged on a special train from Chicago to Portland, Me., bearing the delegates to the General Passenger and Ticket Agents' Association, now the American Passenger Traffic Officers' Association, of which Mr. Bell served as president in 1909. The signals were audibly heard on a set of bells which had been installed on three of the cars, and the experiment made a profound impression on the gathering.
The inspiration to bring to Canada, and incidentally to the railroad of which he was an official, the honour of being the first to apply wireless telegraphy to train operation was gained, the speaker said, from a dispatch that he had read in a Boston paper telling of Senatore Marconi's trip to complete plans at Glace Bay for sending wireless messages across the Atlantic.
Mr. Bell said that the tests conducted by the McGill University scientists on what are now the Canadian National Railway lines were made a little more than two months prior to the time when Senatore Marconi transmitted his first commercial wireless across the water. Since that experiment, the Canadian National Railways had been working in the field of wireless and radio, and to-day more than forty-six cars are equipped with radio sets.
A minute lost at a railway corssing may save all the rest of your time.
“Among the natural beauties of New Zealand, and of the world. The Hermitage holds a first place.”—Mr. Jacques-Edoward Chable.
The Hermitage, Mt. Cook, Southern Alps of New Zealand. (Government Publicity Photo.)
Promotions Recorded During July
Clerks:
Austin, A. G., to Goods Clerk, Grade 6, Marton.
Diggle, A., to Shift Clerk, Grade 6, Newmarket.
Lowry, J. W. Second Clerk, Grade 3, C.M.E.O., Wellington, to Grade 2, C.M.E.O., Wellington.
Dempster, W., to Draughtsman, Grade 6, Signal and Electrical Engineer's Office, Wellington.
Woodbury, W., Passenger Foreman, Christchurch, to Yardmaster, Grade 4, Christchurch.
Reehal, J., Guard, Helensville, to Yard Foreman, Grade 5. Westport.
Jenkins, C. A., General Foreman, Grade 2, Addington, to Workshop Manager, Spec. Grade 3, Addington.
Shunters to Guards:
Porters to Shunters:
Burke, W., Ganger, Grade 1, to Ganger, Subclass 10, Arthur's Pass.
Cave, R. J. B., Labourer, to Bridgeman, Works, Rangataua.
Pattison, V. O., Carpenter, to Leading Carpenter, Dunedin.
Thomas, G. L., Labourer, to Skilled Labourer, Works, Kaiwarra.
Wisdom, H. W. L., Bridgeman, Greymouth, to Labour Ganger, Grade 2, Greymouth.
Wright, W. A., Labourer, to Bridgeman, Works, Rangataua.
Cleaners and Acting Firemen to Firemen:
Suggestions and Inventions.
Commendations:
Brothers, C. E. H., Guard, Rotorua.—Suggestion re sorting of loose letters in van letterboxes.
Burgess, B., Casual Labourer, East Town.—Suggested improved funnel for boiler No. 238 at East Town Maintenance Shops.
McArthur, E. D., Cadet, Lambton.—Suggestion that fire extinguisher caps be lubricated periodically to ensure easy removal.
O'Hara, W. K. M., Draftsman, D.E.O., Auckland.—Suggestion re steel moulds for the construction of platform fronts.
Payne, A. W., Leading Machinist, Penrose, and Furness, E., Carpenter, Penrose.—Joint suggestion re method of manufacturing hardwood fishplates.
Parrant, A. L., Casual Fitter, Petone.—Suggestion re draw-gear between engine and tender.
Williams, W., Blacksmith, Greymouth.—Suggested improved marlin spike for splicing wire ropes.
Maloney, J. W., Porter, Ngahere.—Suggestion re train services, Greymouth-Ngahere-Blackball. Commended and awarded bonus of £2.
The figures for the current year, covering a period of 112 days as against 114 days last year, disclose a decrease in revenue of £31,195. After allowing for the extra two days in last year's figures, the increased mileage now open for traffic and the revenue derived from bus services not operated last year, the position as regards total earnings is approximately the same as obtained this time last year.
Goods traffic has shown considerable improvement during the past two months. Passenger traffic by train is affected by the Department's operation of additional road services. The increase of nearly half a million in passengers is mainly due to bus traffic, the number of “ordinary” train tickets showing a decline.
Season and Bearer tickets show an increase due probably to the movement of population to the suburbs in the four main centres. Ninety per cent. of the increase in Season Tickets is in Workers’-weekly and twelve-trip issues. The revenue return from these is low, amounting to only 2 1/2d. and 3 1/2d. per journey, respectively.
Live stock, timber and goods traffic show substantial increases in almost every district, the notable exception being the Northern portion of the North Island. Timber production has fallen off considerably in this district, due in part to the timber areas having been cut out at certain mills, and to the decline in the demand for house construction. General merchandise (notwithstanding an increase of 13,000 tons in imported phosphates) shows a decline—increased motor competition this year and the abnormal dairy production last year being the contributing factors.
Published by the New Zealand Government Railways Department, and Printed by Whitcombe & Tombs Ltd., Lambton Quay, Wellington, August 1st, 1928.