TELEPHONE BUREAU CLOSED.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 83, 8 April 1911, Page 9

TELEPHONE BUREAU CLOSED.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, — I desire to ask you a question, and shall be obliged to have your reply! Is it a fact that a telephone bureau office may be closed between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. during week days? I ask this question for the following reasons : I wanted to send an urgent telephone message to the Northland Bureau about 3.00 p.m. to-day (Wednesday), and was informed by the exchange that I 'would have to pay one shilling opening fee as the bureau in question was closed at 1 p.m. because the attendant has a. grocer's 6hop and is compelled to close his establishment at 1 p.m. on Wednesdays. Sir, I ask what in the name of goodness could be" more absurd. It is to be regretted t'oat such a rule, if there actually is one, should exist. Will you kindly assist me to obtain. a solution of this absuid practice, publicly. — I am, etc., COMMERCIAL TRAVELLER. Wellington, sth April. 1911. [In reply to the above the Postal Department states that at certain offices In charge of telephonists, who are not permanent officers of the department, it is the practice of the Post Office to allow the telephonists one half holiday a week. The practice is common. Usually the half day chosen is the day on which the shop or other 'establishment has to be closed in. conformity ,\vith the Shops and Offices Act. On these half holidays the department makes the best arrangements possible under the circumstances for the del' very of telegrams.]