POSTAL CONTROL

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 251, 14 June 1932, Page 6

POSTAL CONTROL

recent decision INQUIRY INTO MANAGEMENT AND POLICY OF OFFICE. NEW- ZEALAND COMMENT. Interesting comment is made by the Post and Telegraph Journal (published by the Post and Telegraph Officers' Guild) on the recent decision of the British Parliament to set up a commission of inquiry into the management or policy of the Post Office. It is to be noted, writes the Journal that it is not the administration of the service or (shall we say?) the working methods that are to be inquired into, but the policy as laid down from time to time by successive Governments. The man in the street looks upon the Post Office as a place where he can post a letter or send a telegram, and he must be forgiven if he knows little more about what is a gigantic industry — in fact, in England the largest in the country. In New Zealand the Post Office does not rank as the largest industry, although it is probably a good second. It certainly is the most complex. .It is not often realised that, apart from the old-time function of speeding letters and telegrams, the Post Office now handles annually by far the largest amount of money in New Zealand. A glance at the last annual report of the Minister discloses a turnover of about £200,000,000. Ilmagine that in a country with a population of only one and a half million, and then let us ask oufselves how the Post Office is managed and who sets the policy. Changing Policy.

The Post Office has a revenue of over £3,000,000 per annum, and an expenditure approaching that amount. It is suggested — and there is food for thought in the suggestion — that the old method of deciding the policy of the Post Office in Cabinet cannot make for the success of the department as a business organisation, not because the members of Cabinet are incapable, but because by the time a Minister becomes familiar with even a few of the daily problems of the Post Office he is promoted to other Cabinet rank or relegated to the ranks of the Opposition. Viscount Wolmer, who was Assistanfc Postmaster-jGeneral in England for a considerable period, apparently realised the huge blunder that is being enacted in carrying on a -method of management which should have been relegated to the waste-paper basket years ago, and his frank statement of the position as he found it has culminated in a majority of members of the House of Commons signing a petition for a reorganisation of the management of the British Post Office. That the usually conservative British Government has acceded to that petition by setting up a small but able committee is surprising, but it is an indication that at last it has been realised that the policies of a large business can be laid down only after careful eonsideration of the surrounding circumstances. In the Post Office policies are deeided upon by Cabinet or by a Minister, but it is well known that upon the arrival of a new Government there are variations which cannot make for success over a long period. In New Zealand we have perhaps been fortunate in that the new policies have not been revolutionary in character, but what business magnate would entrust the management of his £12,000,000 capital to a directorate which changed its chairman forty times during the past eighty years? The Post Office is the people's own department of State. It serves everyone in the community, and gives the same service to all. It conducts the people's bank, but how does it do so? Who deeided many years ago to limit interest-bearing deposits to £500? Who varied this in 1907 to £600, in 1914 to £1000, in 1921 to £5000, and in 1928 to £2000? Has the Board of Directors (of the day) made decisions which the originator of the scheme obviously would not have made ? Then what board of directors would pay a . lower rate of interest than all its competitors and expect to keep a fair share of the higlily profitable deposits of the man in the street?