Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1889 - 1931), Tuesday 27 March 1923, page 15


THE ISLINGTON DISMISSALS.

Fr om "A N OLD LOCO. APPREN- <*> TICE": —In common with others who re- <*> ceived their early training in the Govern- <*> ment workshops, I resent the imputation

I thrown out from certain quarters that the Government-trained men are not equal to those from outside shops. I served my articles many years ago, when tbe workshops were in the Adelaide yard, where part of the station building -now stands, and can call to mind many men who received their early training "there who are absolutely at the top of the profession as civil, mechanical, electrical, and mining engineers. Some hold university depress; i others graduated at the School of Mines; many fierved with engineering units in the war, some in high command, and received decorations for eminent services; others in the British Navy, as engineers, while ths mercantile marine is full of men holding chief engineers' certificates, some extra chief's certificates, who were trained in the loco, shops. Some even attained fame as lgistators, fonr I can call to mind being the Hon. J. H. Cooke (a consulting engineer), Donald Campbell, LLJ}., and the late Hons. E. L. Batchelor and £. Klauer. You meet Adelaide loco, men, prond to admit they were in the Adelaide workshops, al! over Australia, in charge of works, on mining fields, and also bolding high Government appointments. And not oriy in Australia, but in other parts of the world. What reliance, then, can be placed on the statements of irrespoii, eible persons prompted by others with some malign intent, the said persons themselves not being engineers? Islington almost from its inception has suffered from political interference, and this has landed it in the present slough of despond. Wilh regard to_ the new type of locomotives which it is intended to introduce, these, of course, are necessary, but it would be a calamity if they were imported from America. They can be made in Australia, and in any case should be of British manufacture. Old loco, men will remember the Baldwin engines imported from America, and what an endless source of worry ana expanse they were, especially the boilers. Let us not repeat the experience.