Conclusion.

In this comparison the work which is done at Port Chalmers Graving dock workshops for the Railway is not taken into account, because much work for the Northern District has also been done there, and the local iron founders at Christchurch have also been pressed into employment. It may be allowed to stand as a legitimate estimate of the difference between the two establishments.

It might perhaps be argued that if there is so much more work to be done at Christchurch as is evidenced by the activity of the workshops, and the number of men constantly employed there, it is only right that the first attention should be given to the workshops for the Northern District. To which, the reply is easy. In the first place, provision for new workshops at Hillside might very well have been made at the same time as for those at Addington, and when new plant was actually ordered, it was something like culpable negligence to provide no workshop in which to erect it on arrival. In the second place—and this is the point which requires the special attention of the Chamber—the work at Christchurch is magnified by the extension of what is known as the Northern District of the line as far south as Palmerston. Thus the miles of railway within that district are very much greater than in the Southern District. There was of course reason for extending the jurisdiction of the Christchurch Engineers as far as Palmerston, during the interval which occurred between the opening of the line to that place, and the completion of the link between Palmerston and Blueskin. The anomolous character of the present arrangements is clearly shown by the fact that, besides the engines of the express train, two engines and the ordinary complement of trucks and waggons are run through to Oamaru by the staff of the Southern District, and a similar quantity of the rolling stock, which is under the charge of the Christchurch engineer, runs through daily to Dunedin. It may therefore be quite correct for the Department to say in answer to our remonstrance that, "the work done in Christchurch shop is for Christchurch section only," and yet the fact be that the Dunedin workshops and the work done at them remain quite secondary in importance when compared with the Christchurch establishment and the employment it gives to workmen, because work is cencentrated at Christchurch wich ought properly to be done at Dunedin.