MAN OF MANY JOBS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 540, 8 February 1913, Page 7

MAN OF MANY JOBS.

3RITISH POSTMASTER-GENERAL. The British Postmaster-General is rhat Londoners call a universal pro'ider, a regular department store of iublic functions. He will insure your life, give you a lttle ttank to hoard your pennies in, ake care of your savings, sell you .n annuity, a postal order or a oreign draft, invest your spare captal in a nice, little Government bond, jid pay a weekly pension to your .ged mother or aunt. He carries letters and other mail natter, transmits telegrams, cable;rams, and wireless messages, mainaifcs an enormous staff of messen;er boys, and conducts an express ompany business for every sort of iarcel, from a halfpenny packet up hipments of eggs, dressed poultry ,nd fresh fish. He collects all the v/o/n copper oins for the British Treasury. He as factories for making his supplies, ,nd an electric central station of his •wr?. in London for lighting his ofces, bringing the current through is cable ducts. He- will sell you a license for a .og, a carriage, a motor-car, a priate brewery, a male servant, a gun, ■r a family coat-of-arms. or he will ait in your telephone and take care f your hellos. , At dinner the other night ths Post-naster-General confessed that he ometimes doubted whether he had ny human personality, at all. When :e thought of his own functions, ha aid, he was appalled by them., In his official capacity he is responible for more property than anybody else in the united Kingdom, mploys far more people than any ndividual or corporation (212,364 at he last report), prosecutes more aalefactors every day than the pubic prosecutor, and senda out every feck more apologies for himself and splanations of his actions than all he rest of the British population ombined. Some time ago the engineering taf! of . the Post Office wanted to rim some trees down in Sussex. The 'ostmaster-General notified their wner, Sydney Buxton, saying they rould be trimmed. Sydney Buxton id not want them trimmed, but the 'ostmaster-General was firm, and ad the law behind him. When Sydney Buxton and the Post-aaster-Gcneral got together on this aatter, however, there was no diffiulty, because at that time Sydney suxton and the Postmaster-Genera? , 7 ere the same person. —"Telephone leview."