TELEGRAPH CLERKS.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 207, 14 February 1873, Page 3

TELEGRAPH CLERKS.

. -;-A- u Auci-land comtemporary, we think it was, which first mooted the question of the inadequacy of the.rates of pay awarded. to telegraph clerks. The matter lias since then been pretty generally taken up by the Press of the colony, which on tliiV P°|PA. have been wonderfully unanimous ; Ministerial and Opposition journals alike condenining the parsimoniousness of the Government in the payment of this class of pjxblip..s.qrvxiiitSi-: .Economy in administration of public funds cannot be too highly commended, but when that economy degenerates into stinginessj it is no longer economy,,and.just in.proportion • -is " nae-drawfi"" so in nine cases out of ten t do we find the ; capabilities. .Good wage gqnerally comniands the services of good men/ and bad wage those of inferior.' We must allow, though, that in the case in point, ■Government have been exceedingly fortunate in securing, .for a most meagre rate of pay, a very good class of servants. But this fact does not in any .way alter, the position .of the master—the' public—-on the one side, and the telegraph clerks on the other. It only shows that there are" in- colony a nunibsr of young -men: who, like the steward in the-parable, can* not.dig, and to bag are ashamed, .and.who are compelled to take the miserable pittance given by the Telegraph Department.' - -

i A miserable'pittance it is indeed, wlien i the nature of the work' for which it is | given iis-consideredy the responsibilities involved, and the capabilities required, i Take the capability.: question first; .The j man must be possessed of a certain amount of education; he must be quick ,of hand atid- eye, ; and must,, moreover, j have an undoubted' character for honesty | sobriety. The responsibilities of the ! office oblige him to ■ ;be, methodical and careful, and above all, reticent ; and the | nature of the work, especially in small I yrhere but one clerk is kept, is irki some in the extreme, being in many cases j unremitting from the time lie enters the j office at 9 a.m. to 12 o'clock midnight. Of I course all these hours he is liot actually at work, but he dare not leave his post tearful of a call. ■ Fbr this education, for itlie hours of work, for the responsibility ..he undertakes, he is paid in many cases little if an}' - better than the laborer, whose work is but for eight hours per diem, whose education is little, and whose .responsibilities are comparatively insigniiicant. . that here is an anomaly which should be corrected. Make some distinction in the matter of payment betweenthe man of education holding an important and the man whose only capitai is his pair of stout hands. As long as brawney labor is amply rewarded, why not reward in.like ratio the man . whose capital is in possession of brains ?; The one's sphere is. of course - honorable, the; other's relatively ' more so, and' the : telegraph clerk is remunerated in s many .instances at a figure barely sufficient? to sup- ; ply the necessaries of life.—' Tiinaru ileraid.'