GISBORNE POST OFFICE.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 74, 30 July 1873, Page 2

GISBORNE POST OFFICE.

Tbub to the instincts of his porcine nature, Mr. Stubbs has now descended to a lower ebb of contemptuous malversation, than we thought possible svenfor him! On Sunday week the Postmaster pointblank refused us our letters, while making a public delivery. Having taken this paltry official to task on several occasions, through the effect of which the public are admittedly gainers, he now evinces a contumacious disregard for the instructions of his superior, and determinedly breaks through them for “ private ” purposes of his own, thinking to spend bis wrath upon us by withholding our files and letters while be makes a public delivery to all others. In this, however, he has failed ; and the black, deliberate lie, sent by him through a lad, whose very astonishment would have shamed anyone, in whom dwelt a particle of truth, — “That the Post Office was not open"—recoils upon himself, with all the odium thereto belonging. The course pursued by the local postmaster, is simply intolerable. To think that a public servant is capable of rendering his orders into engines of oppression, and discharging his duties on the principle that his “ alone are entitled to his services, is so monstrous a proposition that, as a justification is set up by a delinquent, the interests of the public service demand his instant dismissal from an office in which, while he is in it, there is no confidence. It is the duty of the Government to look into this matter. We impeach him upon every count known to official courtesy and official duty ; and this last petty act shews now little he is to be trusted in the fulfilment of one of the most sacred duties in the Civil Service. Here is a man, in the character of Postmaster, taking upon himself to contravene the instructions of the Government, which declare that the Post Offices of the colony “ shall be strictly closed ” on Sundays, and opens his own for the express purpose of playing a trick upon a public institution, whose interests are generally among the first considerations of the Government he so impudently defies. We feel we shall have the sympathy of the Government in our unqualified condemnation of the plea put forward in the Postmaster’s reply, for we do not believe it was intended to be left optional with himself os to whom he should select to be objects of his “ pleasure ” or enmity. The subjoined letter, and attestation of several persons who obtained their letters on Sunday last, sent by the proprietor of this journal to the Postmaster General, are the only means left open to us to obtain redress ; and, although a knowledge of his limited tenure, may induce the Postmaster to act as inimically as possible to the public weal, we shall have had the satisfaction of laying bare a few instances of the most glaring official turpitude, ever committed by a servant in the pay of the Colony. Poverty Bay Standard Office, Gisborne, 24th July, 1873. To the Honorable the Poet master-General. Sir, —I have the honor to make a formal complaint against the local Postmaster here—Mr. Stubbs —for malversation in the discharge of his public duties. The subject matter of my complaint is shortly this : —On Sunday last, the 20th of July, one of my sons informed me that the mails, which had arrived per Rangatira early that morning, were being delivered ; and I gave him instructions to enquire for letters, &c., for the Standard. He waited at the Post Office about three-quarters of an hour, during which time the mail was distributed (newspapers and all) in the usual way. When Mr. Stubbs did vouchsafe a reply to the enquiry : it was to “give his compliments to Mr. Webb, and inform him that the Post Office was not open to-day.” It is needless to say that I did not get my letters and papers ; and that the general public had an advantage which I was denied.

On the following day, I wrote te Mr. Stubbs, (so as to be sure whether my eon were mistaken in the reply given to him by Mr. Stubbs on the previous day), when I received the following reply, intended to justify his conduct on the authority of the Postmaster-General. “Poet Office, Gisborne, “ July 21, 1878. 44 Sir, —I beg to acknowledge receipt of your communication of this morning, asking why I refused on Sunday last to give the boy your letters and newspapers. I must beg to refer you to General Post Office Circular, No. 41, 1873, (a copy of which can be seen at my office) from which I will give you an extract: —‘ The Post-master-General's attention having been directed to the .. . inconvenience and hardship, which many officers of the Department suffer, has been pleased to decide that from and after the Ist day of January, 1873, all Post Offices in New Zealand shall be strictly closed on Sundays.* “ Acting on these definite instructions, I have been compelled to close the Post Office on Sundays; at the same time I imagine the Postmaster General cannot mean to debar me from the pleasure of giving out letters to my friends, should I choose to take the trouble; neither do I think that any one has the right of objecting to my sodoing.—(Signed), “J. H. Stubes." 44 To Mr. H. E. Webb.”

Independently of the deliberate falsehood given to my son, the conduct of the Postmaster is most reprehensible, and mischievous, as he takes cover under what be deems official sanction, to comply with his instructions, or not, according as it may suit hie fancy, or ■“ pleasure” in obliging his “ private friends. But that the delivery of the mail last Sunday morning was not a private issue—-as .might he understood to be the case if some fifty or persons had not attended and were served bv the Postmaster—the list which accompanies this letter will shew. The number of signatures appended to to document—few though they be as compered to the number of persons attending the Poet OMee—will serve the purpose of shewing the unfounded statement made by Mr. Stubbs, and expose the real reasons for his refusal to deliver my letters in common with those of the rest of the community,—which are amply to take a paltry revenge against me for having been ranpolled, in the interests of the public, to take him totaskfor grpss derelictions of duty, in the columns of the Standabd.

It will be understood that I am by no means advocating that the Postmaster should be com* pelled to deliver mails on Sundays—far from it; and I may say that I shall be happy to conform to the spirit as well as the letter of the circular, minute quoted above; but I cannot conceive of the Postmaster-General allowing his subordinate officials to contort the obvious meaning of his instructions to them, so as to “ privately ” oblige the community, to the exclusion of others who have certainly as much right to the obligation. Viewing the status of a newspaper in a community as among the public institutions, I cannot think that in the face of the fact that orders have been issued to “ strictly close ’* the Post Offices on Sundays, the Postmaster-General will so far curtail the privileges of the Press as to en--done the action taken by Mr. Stubbs. I need hardly point out that such conduct is intolerable, ana not at all in harmony with the vi®ws of either the Government, or the PostmasterGeneral himself; and I shall esteem it a great favor if I may be informed whether the Government sanctions such an introduction of private spleen, in carrying out its instructions, as is manifested in the conduct of the Postmaster, of which I now complain.—l have the honor to be, Sir, your most obedient servant, H. E. Webb, Editor and Proprietor Povebty Bat Standaed. [enclosube.] We the undersiged beg to state that on Sunday the 20th July last, we got our letters and papers from the Post Office in the usual public way, and not through any personal favor, or private friendship for Mr. Stubbs. (Here follow the signatures).