THE EXCHANGE SERVICE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 27, 11 March 1942, Page 4

THE EXCHANGE SERVICE

$i r? —For a number of years it has been my privileged lot to> use that wonderful servant, the telephone, in a number of towns of larger popu-» lation than Whakatane and I desire to protest against your unwarranted attack on the personnel of the Whakatane Exchange as appearing, in the sub-leader of the 16th inst. It would have been much better if you had taken dates and times of even just a few of the alleged breaches, and interviewed the Postmaster before rushing into and condemning servants who virtue of the fact that they are Government employees are denied the right of reply to such uncalled-for criticism. If this line of action had been taken you would be assisting and not condemning officers who are discharging their duties in a very . efficient and courteous manner. However let the other 600 odd telephone subscribers be their own judges, and I feel sure the unanimous verdict w T ill be that the local exchange compares more than favourably with others. lam of the opinion that if the telephone attendants had 600 telephone subscribers such as the Beacon you ■would be writing a number of obituary notices instead of uncalled-for sub-leaders dealing with pin-prick-ing complaints. For promptness and politeness the Whakatane Exchange can be held ;■}s an example not only to the majority of other Government Departments but to Whakatane business houses. Yours etc., I.A.M. SATISFIED. (We regret that cur correspondent has jumped to the conclusion that our criticism Avas a direct and personal attack upon the operators at the local exchange. We were criticising a public service in the same manner that every citizen has a perfect right to do. We do not know whether the weaknesses mentioned may have been mechanical or otherwise. We only know the unfortunate and regularly recurring annoyances to which we and many others have been subjected. If our correspondent has not experienced any of them—congratulations, he is a lucky man, and we trust need meet with no rude disillusionment*. The accusation of rushing into print is hackneyed enough when applied to an ordinary correspondent, but as it happens to be our 'game' we haye no apologies to make. Possibly the writer is not aware of our previous criticism, when the matter was taken up by the Chamber of Commerce and when the Postmaster was interviewed, with the idea of effecting improvements. We consider our methods a considerable advance' on 'tabbing' the time and situation, and thereby pinning some poor unfortunate down for a departmental 'blast. 'We wonder if it has ever occurred to our correspondent that our objective will have been amply met if some sort of assistance is forthcoming in the exchange, as a result of our article. In that case we should probably be the object of gratitude from the very jaersons whom he thinks the victims of .1 personal attack. Ed.)