VERY RED TAPE

Hokitika Guardian, 3 October 1932, Page 2

VERY RED TAPE

. /. REMARKABLE CASES IN N.S-.W. URGENT ’PHONE CALL HELD UP SYDNEY, September 26. Two remarkable instances of departmental “red tape” have come* under notice this week. One concerns . the Telephone Department. The other day a baby 15 months old was rescued half-drowned from a wafer hole at Woronora. The fatheil tried lirst-am treatment, and sent a neighbour for the doctor. She rushed to. the telephone, found that she had no pennies, and implored the telephonist to., ■ call the ambulance “on a matter of life or death.” The official, it is said, refused on the grounds that,.it was “against the regulations” to send on a . call without payment but advised her to call “Information.” This the woman did, but she asserts that “Information” also refused to make the required connection. Frantically the woman tried to ring up the police, but in vain; and meantime the baby was nearly half dead. At last the distracted father ran',half ,fv mile to another telephone, got.phange and called the ambulance. And now the detectives of the G.P.O. investigation department are “looking into the matter” and are ; no doubt wondering what ought to be done with officials whose reverence for “the letter of the law” is so stupid and slavish as this. The other case was less tragic, but almost as intolerable. A young girl employed in the Government Printing Office has received a notice advising her that from July 1, 1930, to April 17, 1931, she had been overpaid by £9 12s Bd. This was, of course, due to the mistake of some departmental official, but she has to refund the money. The trouble is that, in tlie meantime, as thei results of the various “cuts,” her salary has come down from £6 2s 9d a fortnight to £3 10s a fortnight, and the department apparently does not realise that it is grossly unjust 'to compel her to repay out of her greatly reduced salary the sum that was given to her through the error of its official.