Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, NOV. 30, 1895. The Telegraph Department.

Manawatu Herald, 30 November 1895, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, NOV. 30, 1895. The Telegraph Department.

■ - ■. ♦ . Under date of the 18th July of • this year the Hon. J. G, Ward as Post-master-General and Electrjc Telegraph Commissioner laid the report of his Departments before parliament. We wonder who wrote it ? or how many? t >We do not suppose the Hon. J, G. Ward troubled himself, and it would almost seem as though he also had not taken the trouble to r#ad it, The work is nob tb» work

of otte matt, and it ia the labour of two men, or more, who view matters in a Very different light. The £ostmaster- General h&s been exceedingly badly advised to alter the manner of dealing with delayed telegrams, an alteration which reproduces the custom of the Department some ten years back ! Of course this is so glaringly absurd and is BUdh a gratifyirig illustration of the want ot knowledge both of the temper of the people and of true business on the part of the Minister that we feel sure the obnoxious order will be cancelled* (The absurdity of the conclusions arrived at by the composer of that portion of the report relating to " Telegraphs " has already been commented oti by uti, but, as the Department, though in two divisions, are under one Chief, and the whole duties are practically carried out by one staff of officers, the finance must be looked at from one point of view. The question is, "do the two divisions result in a profit?" the answer to that is found in the report which distinctly declares the " Balance of revenue over expenditure to be £57,478 18a 53 1 1 ! The Postal Department states of the work of the two divisions, postal and telegraphic, " the revenue shows a fairly satisfactory increase. The telegraph receipts, however fell short of the estimate, a result no doubt attributable to the commercial depression which prevailed throughout the colony during the year 1" We get nothing about the poor delayed telegrams here, Worse is fo follow as the writer of the first portion of the repot'!; points out that the shortage in the estimated telegraph receipts "is more noticeable from the fact that the telegraph traffic of the previous year was abnormally high." If we are to believe the report the Hon. J. G. Ward presented to Parliament Wo are bound to come to the conclusion that the reason he puts forth to justify his tampering with the present system of dealing with delayed telegrams is not correct, and that there is no loss of revenue to excuse the attempted extraction of fifty per cent increase in charges to those using the Government telegraph. The " Telegraph " division of the report declared the total value of telegraph and telephone business of the year showed a decrease of £4,720 123 5d ! This would naturally lead the public to suspect, it having been brought forward as the excuse for altering the delivery of the delayed telegrams, that even if the combined Post and Telegraph department had made a profit, there was to be no doubt but that the telegraph division had made a loss. But it is not so and on an adjoining page in the report it is so expressly declared in these 'words " the credit balance for the financial year, after taking into account the value of Government telegrams, free telephone-exchange connections, and fees on moneytelegrams, was £2,849 11s 7d." In the statement of revenue and expenditure the value of those services for which the department gets cash is only shown, but a note explains that the value of official correspondence for the year is estimated at £59,074 10s 2d, and Government telegrams £26,050 7s sd, and that if the value of the Government telegrams and correspondence be added the balanoe of revenue over expenditure would be increased to £142,603 11s !! ! Yet because the ordinary telegrams fell in value £3,020, and the urgent telegrams £213 and the delayed telegrams increased in value by £60 I from amounts received in the previous year, though the past year was noted for the depression in general trade and the traffic of the previous year was abnormally high, yet the chance is seized to make the dwellers on the " idle direct country wires " pay fifty per cent extra 1 M "Go upon the land young man, go upon the land " and then a Liberal Govern ment will seize every opportunity to make you regret it. On the first of December (to-morrow) this iniqutous tax is to be introduoed because in a report dated 13th of July the Telegraph Department dreaded that delayed telegrams were going to monopolise the wires to the hindrance of the ordinary telegram, and also because there was a decrease in the receipts. It will hardly be credited after Mr Ward has made himself answerable for all these extraordinary contradictory statements there should appear on the first page of the report, on the fifth line, the statement which upsets the whole reasoning (?) relied on to justify delaying ' delayed ' telegrams which is as follows : — " A decided improvement in the telegraph business has set in since the beginning of this year (Ist April 1895) due to a great extent to the increased traffic in telegrams in connection with the marked revival in the gold-mining industry in the Auckland-Thames District." What more can be said except the proposal of the Postmaster General is exceedingly impolitic and is on based statements that cannot be substantiated by the report in which they are made ? We are being taxed simply because a Liberal Treasurer wants money.