TELEGRAPH MESSENGERS

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 32, 2 November 1920, Page 10

TELEGRAPH MESSENGERS

/V COMPLAINT AND THE ANSWER. Sir, —Tliq Postmaster-General recently said in the House o£ .Representatives that his Department was unable to secure sufficient hoy 'messengers, because outside billets ivere moro lucrative. This is perhaps partly correct, but ! am going to ask your indulgence, and give three other reasons why this fine service is fought shy of; and I trust wlien this is read by the public that there' are those at. the head of affairs who will remedy matters.

To begin'with, the service as run today is a. close corporation in the interest of the sons and daughters of the fairly woll-to-do, and not for the families of the 'poor. Mr. Coates may not know that there is a premium to be paid to-day before a boy can don the uniform. This applies to girls also. The sum involved is, roughly speaking, seventeen _ pounds ten shillings. To be moro explicit, every candidate lias to provide his own bikoand maintain it in proper working order, for which the State pays them £(5 a voar, in the way of upkeep and depreciation—a totally inadequate sum. Just think of parents to-day rearing boys and girls up to fourteen years of age thou handing them over to tho country mounted on a costly machine. How, I ask is a widow or poor parent going to tind .a sum like this, to enable their children to feecure such a iposition? Such a state of things is unworthy of a democratic country. Prior to 1914 the Postal Department provided the bikes, but it proved so costly that it was evidently deemed more economic to put the burden on tho shoulders of the wretched parents. Secondly: Boys from sixteen upwards are doing postman's duty, being recruited from tho ranks of the messengers, and receive eighty-five pounds a year and provido their own bike. They do exactly the samo work as the men who receive .£258 per annum. This I call rank imposition. Besides letter-carrying is far too heavy for a growing lad who starts work at 7 a.m., and_ when a round is heavy cither misses his dinner or eate a hurried one. In addition to fill this, tiliev aro called back to sort mails _at night, getting home at 9:30 p.m., making a total of fourteen hours of intermittent <!'utv. This happens at least once a week. . , ... . Thirdly. Parents rightly object to their boys, fourteen years of age, carrying around telegrams up to midnight, as many do. ~ , It must be remembered that the boys and girls who live at home receive no boarding allowance, which the Government cheerfully pay if they reside too far away from their district.—, CThe Secretary of the General Post Office, to whom the matter mentioned'ui the above letter has been referred, states that it is clear that "Parent I\ks bee-n misled The Department is willing and anxious to obtain the services of boys or girls as telegraph messengers; and ui no case is tho suggestion made that ft bicvcle is necessary. Tf a boy has a bicycle which he is willing to use in the Department's service, he is granted an allowance of -EG per annum, and repairs to'his bicvcle aro carried out, when possible. in the Department's shops at a minimum cost. On the other hand, many lnds are provided with Departmental bicycles free of charge. It was the prnctico in the Department up to last year to sell bicycles to lads on a time-payment system; and the amount payable monthly under this arrangement did not. exceed the allowance paid to the I lad for the use of the bicycle, so that the bov had the use of tho bicycle m liis spare'time free of cost, or, at tho most, at the cost of upkeep, which is not heavy. H' "Parent 1 ' hns beea under tho impression that the boy '"as vcfiiiired to provide a bicyclo, he lias clearly been mislead. Some bnvs from sixteen years of age upwards are doing i»stmen» work, but onlv' in the smaller towns, where the work is light. There is no comparison between the work done by these lads and that done by adults. Lvery care is taken to see that lads arc not Riven work beyond their physical capabilities. Tho Department is not aware of anj case where n lad is required to perform n total of fourteen hours of intermittent duty. Apparently, the lad referred to by '"Parent" is not occupied m sorting mails at night. . . In Wellington no lad is employed after 8 p.m., «*ll work after that hour beiiig done by adults. ■ No reply is necessary to the final paragraph of "Parent's" letter,, seeing that lodging allowances are provided only tor officers living away from home.]