AUCKLAND POST OFFICE CHARGES.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 15 September 1917, Page 6

AUCKLAND POST OFFICE CHARGES.

THE COMMISSIONER’S FINDING. DISCUSSION IN PARLIAMENT. WELLINGTON, Sept. 13. The report of Mr Bishop, S.M., the Royal Commissioner who inquired into the charges against the Post Office at Auckland, was laid on the table of the House to-day. One issue No. 1 (whether correspondence addressed to Box 912, at Auckland, had been improperly or coruptly detained), the Commissioner says nine envelopes out of 2000 were delivered and two not delivered. He considers the shortage very trifling, and much more likely to be the fault of the senders than anyone else. Forty notices to Ministers not delivered in time were due to the action of the censors, rightly or wrongly, and not to the Post Office. The second issue was on what grounds the military censorship was exercised over Box 912. The Commissioner quoted the evidence of Dr. Salmond, who considered that the pamphlet being circulated by the committee who used the box was a mischievous publication, and considers he is not called on to express an opinion on the sufficiency or otherwise of the reason the Solicitor-General advised the censorship. The Commissioner considers the of censorship was instituted in the interests of the Roman Catholic Church absolutely disposed of and disproved. The Commissioner also refers to the stop page afterwards removed, of the publication called ‘‘The Menace” against which a protest had beeii made. He quotes a letter from the then Post-master-General, the Hon. R. H. Rhodes, showing it was banned because of advertisements considered to be objectionable. and that this was done upon legal advice. The Commissioner also refers to some letters addressed to the Rev. Elliott, care of Box 912, avowedly *ns a trap to the Post Office, which however, failed. Mr. Bishop says he refused to allow them to be read, and comments severely on their nature. He concludes by saying the public may rest assured that the very high reputation the Postal Department has always enjoyed in this Dominion has not in any way been lessened by the result cf this enquiry. Sir Joseph Ward, in presenting the report, stated that the Post Office officials wore completely exonerated by the Commissioner’s report. Mr Nosworthy said nothing had occ.'rrcd in New Zealand for a long time which had shaken the confidence of the Post Office so much as the publication of the evidence given at this in- < • irv It was a strange thing that a censorship was ctsablished over the letter-box of a Protestant institution, while the letters of the Roman Catholic Federation went unsuspected, and the people of the Dominion were going tO' resent it in a definite manner. Mr. Dixon (Parnell) declared hjie finding of the Commission was not in accordance with the evidence which he claimed showed that the Post Office was being run in the interests of the Roman Catholic Church. He denied that the Solicitor-General had power to issue the instructions he did issue, which led to the establishment of the censorship. The Solicitor-General was taking greater power than was vested in the Governor-General. He was becoming a Kaiser, and his right "to assume that authority would be tested in the Sup/reme Court at an early date. The, discussion was continued by Mr. Hornsby, the Hon. Rhodes, Mr Payne, Mr. Witty, Mr. Webb, Mr. McCoombs, and Mr. Isitt, the speakers generally deprecating the promotion of sectarian feeling in New Zealand. Sir Joseph Ward briefly replied, rebutting the contention that the majority of postal officers at Auckland were Roman Catholics. No man who entered the postal service was ever asked what his religion was , nor was, his religion ever allowed to interfere with or expedite promotion. Such a position would be lamentable in a country such as this. The postal officials had courted the fullest inquiry, and had done everything in their power to make the investigation thoroughly effective, but the same could hardly be said of those making the charges against the Department. The report was laid on the table and ordered to printed.