The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22, 1016. LESSONS FROM NEW ZEALAND

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 70, 22 March 1916, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22, 1016. LESSONS FROM NEW ZEALAND

For Mβ cave that tacks attUtanoe. Fur the icrong that neede retittanet, Fvt th» future in the d'jttance. And ine good that <oe <si 9. <•

There is no Government Department with which Xew Zealanders have greater cause to be pleascrl than the poet and telegraph service. There is, of course, a good deal of grumbling about it, but that is inevitable. When a letter is delayed, ot one's telephone goes wrong, the sufferer is tempted to declare that there never was a worse-managed department in any country. It is human nature to magnify failure and ignore successes. The smooth daily working of the machine is not noticed, but a hitch provokes a complaint. The visit of Mr. Webster, the Commonwealth Post-master-General to New Zealand, to pick up ideas for the improvptaent of his department, and his generous tribute to the superiority of our own, should remind the public that they enjoy an admirably managed service. Mr. Webster says our postal administration is far in advance of Australia's haphazard methods, and that our "mail and telegraph operating branches are ideal." Australia has been under great disadvantages as compared with New Zealand in the organisation and administration of this Department. • By the year 1901, when the Commonwealth took over the State services, the New Zealand Department had been for 6cvcral year,* under the control of the present Post-master-General, one of the ablest and most progressive postal administrators of his time. The Commonwealth Department had to take over the services in six different States, covering a-.ivhole Continent, and confusion and' inefficiency for some time were inevitable..". ■ But ..what may be legitimately criticised about the- administration in Australia-is- that even now, fifteen years after the Federation began, there is apparently little improvement. The problem has been discuscd for some years past; inquiries have been held, and miles of reports by experts written. Recently an engineer who was commissioned to investigat? ; the organisation of the Department disclosed in his report astonishing condi j tions of red tape, waste, and-general ] inefficiency. Men in "adjoining room*! spent much of their time writing J official letters to one another The frequent change of Ministers-is one-of the reasons why reform is so late in coming. Whereas Sir Joseph Ward has,with two \ ( intervals, been Postmaster-General since 1893, Mr. Webster is the .thirteenth i Postmaster-General of the Commonwealth in fifteen years. With an. average of nearly one Postmaster-General per year, it is impossible to get anything like continuity of action.- A Minister would hardly have begun to master tho complex organisation of a great business department before he had to give way to somebody elseOne of the things that; impressed Mr. Webster in New Zealand jvaf that" there was only one organisation of employees, which he consiacrs makes for better relation between the staff and the controlling, officers. In Australia the Minister has a dozen or more executives to deal with, "it is obvious," /says Mr. Webster, that many men 6cek' these positions in our sectional system for' purposes other than the common weal, «ucu as a means of bringing themselves into prominence, making themselves objectionable to their -controlling officers, and playing to the gallery. It js singular how many of such officers have been moved up when their unionistic activities cease. Others, envious of their success, follow in their footsteps, frequently with like results. True, there are exceptions, but the former is the -rule. To hear these men ply their -fellow's for levies whilst securing, liberal honorariums for themselves is quite an.education in modern unionism. I prefer one organisation, with paid officers" to the system where officers have to 'engineer* for their reward." This is remarkable candour from a member of a Labour Ministry. The Postmaster-General in the Federal.Ministry that came into office after Labour's victory at the polls in 1914, went out of office in 1915, and there was reason to believe that this was a result of his refusal to grant certain demands made by the employees. It will be interesting to see whether' Mr. Webster will succeed where so many others have failed. He seems to have ideas and energy, nnd if he is given a fairly free hand and enjoys a comparatively long term of office, he may- manage -to introduoe efficiency- into a department which has i become a by-word for inefficiency, and wipe out the heavy deficit in its .working.