CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 108, 15 August 1910, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

POST AXD TELEGRAPH REFORM. There is no department of the public service showing the same energy, effi , ciencv and economy as the Post and ; Telegraph Department. The rigidity of its methods and the system of discipline and attention to minutiae is admirable . and necessary in a country where postal ; (business is disproportionate to the size of its population. The reforms and im- } ' provements that 'have been effected ol j late yeaTS are due in a large measure to the excellent system whereby suggestions from any officer are invited. Many i most valuable devices and methods ol £ working have come from men not higihly s placed in the service, and this system ol d mutual help "pans out" well wherever C adopted. The new reforms promised by j 1 jhe 'Minister in charge of the Depart- A

ment are in keeping with its businesslike progression. Much more frequent clearances in the centres will be effected. This has been made possible by the use of motor vehicles. To the man in the country the institution of rural deliveries will be a very valuable concession. One of the most curious reforms is that a letter carrier shall be a "walking pillar-box,'' to whom one may hand a letter for transmission. The average postman will, perhaps, not welcome this innovation, especially during Christmas time. In many thickly-populated areas,

the necessity of a pack-horse for postmen is obvious. It might be suggested as tin extra duty for the letter carrier that he is bound to carry stamps of different denominations, a few letter cards, some post cards and a money-order block. In fact, he might have a post office on wheels. Maybe in time he could be fitted with wireless apparatus. The new telegram form is an extremely valuable innovation, for it dispenses with the necessity for an envelope and the writing of the address twice. It also ensures some privacy, as the wire passes through fewer hands. The fact that privacy i 9 not invariably secured, is a reason why the utmost care should be taken to secure it. ' Which reminds one of the story of the farmer and the imshpostmistress: "Is 1 there a message for me, Mrs 1" ."Yes; your wife will I be home on Tuesday!"

WONDERFUL WELLINGTON. Wellington has the reputation of being a sordid, money-grubbing town, and. there is no doubt that it richly deserves it. There are more close-listed rich men in that city than in any other in NewZealand, and their sudden awakening to the fact that the city wants a children's hospital is not so much a credit to the donors of money as to the people who proibed the breast of the cold capitalist and discovered, traces of a heart. The Wellington business man, as a rule, is charitable at the point,of the bayonet, and when he is driven into a corner he pays up. Wellington raised a very large sum a few years ago to build a Y.M.C.A. building. Even at that time the children's ward of the general hospital was rotten with disease germs, 'but no one was saying a word about children. Organised and aggressive begging built the Y.M.C.A., and Wellington then won a reputation for quick giving. The Salvation Army get more money in Wellington during self-denial week than they get in any other • centre. This is because the' Wellingtonian is bailed up and made to disgorge. He would probably disgorge in the same way if the collection was for the unclothed heathens of New Guinea. Wellington 'knew all along that its sick children were likely to get sicker by going into the wretched barn that does business for a children's hospital ward. Dr. Ewart, the medical superintendent, said 1 it was awful. The next medical superintendent (Dr. Hardwick Smith) said it was awful, too. Wellington made no attempt to help the children, because it wasn't attacked at the point of the bayonet. The hospital authorities are poor, apparently. They do not get all the fees that they_ should get; but it is a matter of some interest that they were able to build the most palatial nurses' home in the hemisphere at a cost in excess of the money now raised through the instigation of Mrs. Wilford, Mayoress. The children's hospital was an urgent necessity when the nurses' residence was built. The Hospital owns some splendid frontage sections in Riddiford street, but it did not think of using them for any other purpose than to dump rubbish on. It built a very fine hospital for incurable cases—and the'children: went on dying in their foetid barn. It was the hospital au-1 thorities' lack- of that prevented Wellington having a children's hospital years ago. Any friend of little children, anyone who understands that skilled treatment under modern methods may save them to become citizens, anybody with 'bowels of compassion, will be thankful that Mrs. Wilford has made Wellington folk waike up to a sense of their responsibilities. It will do good, this probing of the heart of the coldest city in Australasia, for some day, citizens with fat bank books, who 'have made their money (because Wellington is where it is, will give presents to the town perhaps: will be more like Auckland, or Christchurch, or Dunedin, where rich citizens sometimes repay the town for their bounties. We are apt to overestimate the philanthropy .of the man who of his wealth gives largely, forgetting that it is. his duty so to do. The extraordinary success of Mrs. Wilford's campaign will relieve, in a measure, the stigma that Wellington deserves of being mean and grasping, but it can never relieve the stigma that the authorities could have 'had a' children's 'hospital long before it built its nurses' palace, or its splendid 'building >for incurable patients. And if Wellington/ is aot continually prodded it will relapse into its coldness.