The New Staffing System.

The main principles of this are based upon the practice obtaining in modern large-scale enterprises, with necessary alterations to suit the special requirements of railway operations. All cadets will require to pass (a) a junior examination before proceeding beyond the probationary stage of their service; (b) an intermediate examination before qualifying for a clerkship.

A senior examination will be held before deciding to promote members to the higher grades.

Tuition for these examinations, open to all members whether belonging to the first or to the second division, will be conducted by correspondence from the Training School at Wellington, and will consist of sets of papers with suitable questions bearing on the ground covered. The set of lessons for the junior examination will deal particularly with elementary rules and with tariff matters coming within the ordinary classification and rating of commodities. The next set will instruct in details coming outside the ordinary tariff scale rates, and a thorough cross reference index to the various instruction books bearing on the points page 33 discussed will be included. These lessons, with those previously given, cover the course for the intermediate examination.

The senior examination covers a further course of lessons bearing on matters of general importance in all phases of traffic working, including knowledge of the rule books and all relative instructions. The senior course will also include instruction in grammar and composition.

Members will be given ample opportunity to qualify, with all the assistance possible under a careful and thorough correspondence system, and those who pass the various examinations will have a knowledge and a status considerably higher than was possible previously in the absence of tests or special instruction of any kind. The scheme for staff education includes also instruction on technical matters for members engaged in workshops and on other work requiring manual dexterity, while for the higher branches of railway operations it is intended to make use of the facilities available under the University system of the Dominion.

It is hoped by the adoption of a thorough system of the kind indicated to ensure that the best men are given opportunities to proceed with reasonable rapidity in the Service and that the whole quality of work within the Department will be lifted to a higher plane.

The application of these modern methods to Staff matters will have far-reaching effects of a beneficial nature, upon the working of the whole service. And, in particular, it will assist the Administration in keeping each member employed at such work as by training and ability he is best fitted to perform.

Again let it be emphasised that the purpose underlying the provision of improved education facilities is not only to make our staff better railway men, but also to provide a means whereby any employee—whether in the first or second division—can equip himself for the highest positions in the service, and it is earnestly hoped that members of the second division especially will find the scheme of such a practical help to them that the notion of that (so-called) “Division barrier” will be entirely eliminated from their minds.

Mr. W. O. Ennis, whose sad death at Auckland as the result of a motor accident in February cast a gloom over the whole Service, was one of the best-known and best-liked Officers in the Department. Joining the Railway as a Cadet at Invereargill in 1886 the late Mr. Ennis served in various parts of New Zealand, including Auckland, Dunedin, Greymouth, Christchurch and Invereargill, being appointed to the position of District Traffic Manager in the latter district in August, 1924. At the end of that year he was transferred to Head Office to take up the newly created position of Superintendent of Staff. The late Mr. Ennis was the possessor of a fine war record. He left New Zealand as a Captain early in 1915 and returned as Licutenant-Colonel in charge of the Maori Battalion in 1919, having won the D.S.O. and a bar for conspicuous gallantry. He was eminently fitted for dealing with staff matters, being endowed with those sterling qualities of sound judgment, fair dealing, and humane consideration, which went to the making of an invaluable Railway Officer and thorough gentleman.

Mr. E. Casey, A.M.I.C.E., who is acting as Divisional Superintendent for the North Island, joined the Engineering staff as a Cadet in 1902 and subsequently served in Wanganui, Auckland, Greymouth and Ohakune Districts. In 1912 Mr. Casey took over the duties of Assistant Engineer, Auckland District and in 1916 took charge of the grade casement works between Penrose and Mercer. In 1921 he was transferred to the Christchurch District and was engaged in remodelling the station yards on the Midland Line prior to the opening of the Otira Tunnel. When it was decided to proceed with the Auckland new station yard and the Auckland Westfield new railway Mr. Casey was specially selected to take charge of this work. In March, 1925, he was appointed Inspecting Engineer with headquarters Wellington, and has occupied the position of Vice-Chairman of the Suggestions and Inventions Committee besides acting on several important Departmental Committees. Mr. Casey is known as a public speaker and debater well above the ordinary, holding an unbeaten record at various competitions in the different centres throughout New Zealand, and from 1910 to 1921 he was one of the most prominent officers of the Railway Officers' Institute.