CHARGES AGAINST POST OFFICE.

Taranaki Daily News, 14 September 1917, Page 8

CHARGES AGAINST POST OFFICE.

COMMISSIONER'S REPORT. THE DEPARTMENT EXONERATED. By Telegraph.— Press Association. Wellington, Last Night. The report of Air. Bishop; S.M., the Royal Commissioner who enquired into the charges against the post office at Auckland, was laid on the table of the House to-day On the first issue (whether the correspondence addressed to Box 912 at Auckhad been improperly or corruptly detained) the commissioner says that !) (?) 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 Ihan anyone else. Forty notices to Ministers, not delivered in the House, were due to the action of the censors, rishtly or wrongly, and not to the post office. The second issue (on what grounds the military censorship was exercised over Box 912) the commissioner quoted the evidence of Mr. Salmon,!, wlin considered the pamphlet being circulated bv 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, and it was done. The commissioner considers that the charge that the censorship was instituted in the interests of the Roman Catholic Church is absolutely disposed of and disproved. The commissioner also refers to the stoppage, afterwards removed, of the puliI lication called The Menace, against which a protest had been made. He quotes a letter from the then Postmaster General, Mr. R. If. Rhodes, showing it .was banned because of the advertisements being considered to be objectionable, and'thai this was done upon legni advice. The commissioner also refers to some letters addressed to the Rev Elliott, to Box !H2, avowedly as a trap lo tho 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 f/cen lessened bv the result of this enquiry. Mr. Norworthy said nothing had occurred in New Zealand for a long time yhich had shaken the confidence of the pe'ople in the fidelity of the post office so nfneli as the publication of the evidence t'ven at this inquiry. It was a strange tn;'rr<? that the censorship was established over the letter box of a Protestant institution., while letters of the Roman Catholic Federation went unsuspected. and the people of the Dominion were to resent it in a definite manner.

Mr. Dixon (Parnell) declared that tlio finding of the commission was not in accordance with the evidence, which, he claimed, showed that the post oflice was being run in tho interests of the Roman Catholic Church. He denied that the Solicitor-General had the 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 GovernorGeneral. He was becoming a Kaiser, and his right to assume that authority would be tested in the Supremo Court at an early date. Mr. Herdman declared that when the public read and studied the report submitted by the commission they would realise that no more ill-advised and illjudged attack had ever been made against a publio institution in the Dominion than the charges against the post office. Ills view was that <vhile we were engaged in such a war no religious conflict should be permitted, and the censorship established over box !H2 at Auckland would prevent such a conflict being fomented. If the State stepped in and stopped seditious speeches, why should it not step in and stop literature which was likely to create religious ill-feeling and interfere with recruiting? lie defended his department against the charges of partiality, and denied that the censorship was established in the interests of the Roman Catholic Church. It was established entirely in the interests of the good order of the country.

Tlie discussion was continued liy .Messrs Ilornsby, Rhodes, Payne, Witty, Webb, McCombs, and Isitt, the speakers generally deprecating the promotion of sectarian feeling. Sir Joseph Ward briefly replied, rebutting the contention that the majority of the postal officers at Auckland were Roman Catholics. No man wlio ever 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 poaition would be lamentable in a country such as this. The postal officials courted tlie 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 he printed.

REV. ELLIOTT'S VIEWS. - DISAPPOINTED BUT NOT SURPRISED. Duncdin, Last Night. Rev. Howard iilliott, interviewed to* night, said he wis disappointed,with the finding of the commission, but lie was net surprised. The central committee, mi learning that Mr. Bishop was to act as commissioner, endeavored to get a Supreme Court judge appointed, and lie [felt stronger now than ever that this course was warranted. He pointed out that, Mr. Bishop overlooked the fact that while the censorship was established over Box !112, the pamphlet "Rome's Hideous j Guilt" had been banned by the SolicitorGeneral, and at the same time The Tablet and The Green Ray were publishing matter which, if not seditious, was certainly disloyal. Rev. Elliott said he stated distinctly in his evidence that tlie letters to which Mr. Bishop referred were not fabrications, only the names and addresses being fictitious.