NELSON SHIPPING TELEGRAMS.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 553, 11 September 1869, Page 2

NELSON SHIPPING TELEGRAMS.

The following letter has been received by the Secretary of the Westport Progress Committee, in reply to a letter addressed by him to tlie Commissioner of Telegraphs. The tenor of the letter would imply that complaint had been made of neglect on the part of the Telegraph Department at "Weatport as well as at Nelson. The complaint of the Progress Committee must have been misread. There ia no f ulfc to be found with the manner in which shipping telegrams are despatched from Westport The Harbor-master (not the Customs Department) has been in the habit of supplying, and supplying with regularity, information of arrivals and departures from the port, and we believe the telegrams have been forwarded with punctuality. The fault found is entirely with regard to the irregularity and dilatoriness with which telegrams are forwarded from Nelson. As an indication of the attention of the Department to its duties under the present Commissioner and General Manager, there could certainly be nothing more satisfactory this very explanatory letter : New Zealand Telegraph, Wellington, Sept. 1,1809. Sir, —I am directed by the Hon. the Telegraph Commissioner to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 19th instant informing him that the Went port Progress Committee desire to bring under his notice the irregularity with which the arrivals and departures ot boats at the port of Nelson are telegraphed to Westport. The Hon. the Telegraph Commissioner is at all times desirous to pay immediate attention to complaints made by the public of the manner in which the business of tin's department ia conducted, mid he hcizn to thank the Progress Committee for the trouble they Lave taken in this instance. The Commissioner has directed me to write, to the officers at Nelson and Westport informing them of your complaint and cautioning them to be more careful for the future in sending and receiving shipping teleicrnms. He tru-ts, therefore, that any cause of complaint which yon consider you may hnve will be removed ; but should the instructions issued not result in the satisfactory transmission of telegrams, he will be glad to hear again from you. Permit me to take this opportunity of explaining that it is frequently not the fault of this department when the arrivals and departures of vessels are late reported. The telegraphists receive their information from the Customs officers, the duty of this department in the matter being simply to transmit the messages when given in. Should the Customs officers, from any cause, delay to give in to our stations the reports of the arrivals and departures of vessels, the result of course is unsatisfactory to the public, and tin's department gets blamed, when in reality it may have used all dispatch in the transmission of these shipping telegrams. I have looked carefully over the shipping telegrams sent- from Nelson to Westport in the month of July, and I can only trace three occasions when any delav occurred between the receipt at the Nelson station of a shipping message and its transmission to Westport. Those three times the delay was unavoidable, one of the occasions being caused by the wire beinjj occupied with the transmission of the English mail telegrams.—l have the honor to be, Sir ; your most obedient servant. C. Lemojt, General Manager.