West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879 - 1954), Saturday 2 June 1900, page 2


HELENA VALE RAILWAY WORKS. To the Editor. Sir,-I am desirous of ventilating a grievance through the medium of your paper. On works where a number of men is employed favouritism is generally found, and it invariably results in unfair, and at times most unjust, tactics being resorted to by those in charge for the furtherance of their own ends. When the work on the Helena Vale railway line was first commenced, some men were sent to the job from Fremantle to Bellevue at their own expense. Though good workmen and capable of holding their own with any on the works, some of them are among the frst to be dismissed. Their work or the manner in which they performed it never having been called into question, it appears to me to be but right that the Inspector of Permanent Ways should make enquiries in the matter with a view to ascertaining the real cause of their services being dispensed with, while others who are less competent and whose length of service is not of so extended a period, are retained. There are two gangers on the works. It is generally thought that one of them is ruled with a somewhat high hand by the other. With these gangers it anpears that a man who is a teetotaller is not wanted, for only those men who expend their earnings with the gangers seem to be required. The general belief is that had the men who have been sent away conformed with the wishes in the direction indicated, they would still be working there. Work is not now so easily obtainable as some people imagine, and it is therefore all the more necessary that the inspector should insist that no injustice is done any of the men working under him. I am confident that the matter only requires to be brought under his notice to ensure his making enquiries, and, on ascertaining the true facts, seeing that justice is done to the men who have been dismissed.-Yours, etc.. WORKING MAN. Perth, June 1.