WHY IS THIS THUS ?

Manawatu Times, Volume III, Issue 105, 7 January 1880, Page 2

WHY IS THIS THUS ?

Why is it that the- customers. .of the Government are subjecteel to a course of treatment at the hands of its employes whioh is never experienced elsewhere, is a e{iiestion which has forced itself upon vie by a visit wliich I paid recently to a neighboring township. You go into a draper's, anei you meet with the greatest obsequiousness, anei from the moment you enter tlie door until you are graciously bowed out agiin, you are the recipient of cour!e*y, civility, and attention. Should your business, however, unfortunately necessitate a tre.--p.i3s upon the leisure of a civil servant, you quickly discover, that the designation is a 'naisnomer. Those hard-worked and elo.vntrodden gentry soem to imagine that the public are their natural -enemies and that the indulgence of a- m.iliuious desire to worry ancl hairpMS them, rather than - necessity, is the spirit by which most people are actuated who seek their serviee--". You ' call at the JPoBt Office fo*t* instance— rtnind, I am not speaking locally, but ge.ierally — and aak to be obliged with .four twopenny stamps. The clerk, who. has boen brought to the winelow with dilß-ulfy, heirj wliat you have to Bay,.photographs your physio^, j upon hia men'tnl tablet, and -take*.-* along, scrutinising l-ufc.ut you, which pl^aiy say^: "AH right;'! know you,, and you shall smart for, this annoyance." You receive thejreqaired uodtige, and feel thankful that'

you have, so far stu-ceeeied without rousing the slumbering Hon ; -hut you have been reckoning -without your host, .fo^o-o^lay ing*: down a shilling, the storm burstfi fortii^ana you are a»ked with a snap and^a snarL if you have not .got. the 'proper, amount? With foar and trembling .you confess that such is not the case, and after gettiiig'a severe "jacket ting " for your conduct, you get four penny^stamp-* .slapped down before you. Possibly you entertain a dim notion of expostulating, and saying that you do not want the stamps, but you do want the change ; but a look at tho incensed official as he returns to—hi3~jpe'iloW'backbook and easy chair, forbids such temerity, and you take yoiir departure, writhing under tlie castrgation"and~"inju3*^e^"ybu' have re;.-eive"el. I ask again, with the immortal Artemus, '" Why is this thus ?" but that it is so, no doubt many of your readers have had painful practical experience ; and that it should not bo, all must cordially admit.