Awards to Guides for brave act

Jean Jones and Jean Sanders, of the Port Nelson Girl Guides Company, who last year saved a lady from drowning in the Motueka River, have each been awarded a silver medal.

This medal, which was accompanied by a letter of warm appreciation from the Girl Guides’ headquarters at Buckingham Palace Road, London, is in the form of a silver cross, in the centre of which lies the Guide trefoil. On it are engraved the words "for life saving" and the medal itself hangs from a rich blue ribbon. This decoration is never given unless the winner has risked her life in the performance of her duty, and the present winners of the medal certainly fulfilled this condition, seeing that one of them was twice pulled under the water. Only through her knowledge of lifesaving was she able to free herself.

Railway workshops will pay

"Although the organisation of the workshops is a costly matter it is a payable proposition and the savings made will pay off the whole cost in just over 10 years" stated Mr F.J. Jones (chairman of the Railways Board), to the New Zealand Society of Civil Engineers conference in Dunedin yesterday.

He stated that the upkeep of rolling stock both in the manufacture and maintenance of the locomotives, carriages, and wagons, was in the main, the function of the workshops. On a detailed analysis the workshops of this country were found to be out of date and inadequate. Men were cramped and machines were crowded together. The shops were now in process of reconstruction on specialised lines. In place of some eight isolated shops the work would be concentrated in two shops in each island, one shop for locomotive work and one for carriages and wagons.

Buses in between trains

The effect of motor bus competition with the New Zealand Railways in the carriage of passengers formed an interesting subject in the presidential address given by Mr F.J. Jones to the Civil Engineers yesterday.  For close on 100 years the leading means of transportation had been the railway; its growth had been tremendous and for land travel it had gradually supplanted all other means. The advent of the internal combustion engine and its use in motor vehicles had brought, of late years, a very strong competitor into the field, and today all railways throughout the world were feeling the pressure from the competition of the motor bus and, in a lesser degree, from the motor lorry.

For bulk transportation such as was obtained on suburban services in the mornings and evenings the railway was likely easily to hold its own. For the in-between services it might pay the railways better to replace the steam rail services with buses on the road, both on account of the cheaper operating costs and of the greater mobility of the buses. Experiments in this direction were already being made.

Rail routes curved, not square

In his address yesterday, Mr F.J. Jones cited the following interesting facts and figures: "New Zealand is a comparatively difficult country physically and geographically over which to operate railways. The configuration of the country is such that much of it consists of heavy grades and sharp curves. Nine percent of the total mileage has grades steeper than 1 in 50, 25 percent has grades steeper than 1 in 100, and 60 percent of the total has grades steeper than 1 in 200. The curvature is likewise very considerable. Twenty-six percent of the track is curved, 12 percent of the total being curves under 15 chains radius. As it is a sea-girt country, harbours are plentiful, and this reacts on the revenue, the average haul of all commodities being only 61 miles. In the earlier days of the railways speeds were limited, but with the growth of traffic and the necessity to cater for modern conditions speeds have increased. On good and well-maintained straight track a speed of 55 miles per hour can be run with perfect comfort, and on curves a speed of 11 times the square root of the radius in chains where the curve is sufficiently canted will give very smooth running."

— ODT, 17.2.1926