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Railway Progress in New Zealand.
General manager's message.
The New Year.

In contemplating the New Year upon which we are about to enter, there are, I believe, good grounds for satisfaction both regarding the progress of the Department's business during the past year and also in the prospects of the coming one.

We change over from 1936 to 1937 in the knowledge that a great deal has been done to prepare the way for the considerably augmented traffic of all kinds that we may be expected to handle. The whole of our staff will agree with me, I feel sure, that 1936 was a year of outstanding activity in the Department's history, both in respect to the many changes and improvements introduced to advance the range and quality of service the Railways could give the public, and also in the upward tendency of every class of traffic through the more favourable economic and other conditions existing for the use and extension of railway services.

We are now ready to advance into another year in which even greater internal developments of the service may be expected, in keeping with the increased commercial and tourist activities already planned and the general buoyancy of trade that 1937 promises.

In a recent review of the many ways in which the members of the service can and do assist the public I had occasion to go into some very minor—but none the less very important—matters of detail where, perhaps, the best was not being done on all occasions by some members of the staff. As possibly certain members of the public may be inclined to judge railway performance rather by the minor failure than by the major accomplishment, I would again, while expressing the strongest appreciation of the good work done by the staff during the past year, ask members to examine carefully their actions and attitude in those matters of detail that come within the scope of their duties and opportunities, to see whether in some of these things they can effect further improvements—by some keener attention and greater zeal and more commonsense outlook in performing to the utmost of their capacity those duties which are covered by the specific instructions of the Department, and also those other obligations towards the patrons of the Department and their fellow-employees that develop from moment to moment in the course of the day's work but for which no hard and fast rules can be laid down.

Given this intensification of determination not to let the Department down in any respect, every member of the service may look forward to 1937 with a great deal of pleasurable confidence, and the public will find still more justification for faith in the ability of railwaymen to attend to and solve all their transport problems.

General Manager.

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