Petrol, Mail Boxes and the Public

Southland Times, Issue 24229, 12 September 1940, Page 6

Petrol, Mail Boxes and the Public

ON TUESDAY night a letter from the Hon. P. C. Webb was received and discussed at a meeting of the Invercargill City Council. Citizens will share the dissatisfaction expressed by councillors with the Postmaster-General’s ruling on the night clearance of suburban mail boxes. There was nothing in the letter which justified the attitude of the Post and Telegraph Department.

Correspondence posted at night is “mainly of a domestic character,” and therefore (such appears to be the reasoning) there is no need to worry about a little delay. The people who contribute a great part of the postal revenue apparently have no right to expect anything better than a casual service. In the name of the war effort (which becomes curiously unimportant when workers in an essential industry ask for an extension of working hours) there is to be a reduction of facilities which are already costing, in extra postal fees, more than people in other countries pay for a really quick and efficient service. The best that can be done, as a feeble concession to local difficulties, is to allow the tramways to perform a service which is strictly the responsibility of the Post and Telegraph Department. “I am afraid,” wrote Mr Webb, “that there would

be serious objections to a reversion to the night clearances of posting boxes by motor-vehicle . . .” If the authorities are determined to keep the issues strictly related to the need for conserving petrol, they should be prepared to show that adequate economies have already been made in Government services which affect the public less directly. But there is no reason why petrol economies should remain the stumbling block in the present situation. Between 1935 and 1940 the number of employees in the Post and Telegraph Department rose from 10,617 to 14,450, or by more than 35 per cent. Even when Allowance is made for enlistments, there must still be a considerable advance on the 1935 figures. If it is impossible, in spite of such an increase in manpower, to find men who can be spared for night clearances, there are still plenty of mien employed on relief works who would be glad to perform a useful task. Doubtless a suggestion of this kind would be lost in a jungle of red tape if it reached the central authorities in Wellington. But Mr Webb, who talks glibly of the war effort, should be able to understand that the essence of war-time administration is an adaptability to abnormal conditions. It is not, or should not be, 1

a mere habit of reducing services while keeping the costs at a high level. There are men, horses, carts and bicycles in Invercargill. Surely it could be possible to find some way of maintaining an important facility without wasting a drop of petrol? Or is it too much to expect the official mind to show a little imagination, a little enterprise, and a little of the co-operation it so calmly expects from the general public?