POST AND TELEGRAPH STAFF.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 12, 14 January 1918, Page 2

POST AND TELEGRAPH STAFF.

THE CLASSITCATION SYSTEMWHY IT WAS POSTPONED. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) CHRISTC-HX-RCII, Sunday. Speaking at the Post and Telegraph officers' reunion last night, Sir Joseph Ward said it was idle and futile for anyone to believe that in view of tlie great war responsibilities of the Government the Public Service as it existed in normal times could be carried on as easily as some people imagined. It could not, and for the reason that the men and -women from end to end of the Dominion wanted to win; the war. They wanted to win the war before everything else. For that Teason the Government was not undertaking the construction oi any public buildings in any portion of the country that could possibly be put off till after the war. A3 to the postponement of the classification of the Post and Telegraph Department, he said it could not be done separately. If it -were to be done the whole of the Public Service would have to be reclassified, and that could not be done except on one Condition, which would not be agreeable to them, and that was the withholding of bonuses. He believed it was better for them to _iave the present condition of affairs than the introduction of a state of affairs which might result in heavy xetrenchment and largo reductions. They must not try to drive things. If they did try to drive things, then he for one would not yield unless le could see that it was safe.