PENNY POSTAGE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 162, 11 July 1930, Page 19

PENNY POSTAGE.

AT EMPLOYEES' EXPENSE ? P. AND T. OFFICERS' GRIEVANCE. (By Telegraph.—Special to "Star.") WELLINGTON, this day. , Penny postage in New Zealand lfad been reintroduced at the expense of the Post and Telegraph employees, said Mr. H. J. MeKenzie, general secretary of the Post and Telegraph Employees' Association, to-day. "When making his , report to Parliament on the year 1922-3, the Post-master-General estimated that revenue would exceed expenditure by £572,000," said Mr. McKenzie. "After making provision in various directions the net revenue was expected to reach £100,000. The Postmaster-General used this surplus for a reduced rate on letters and a reduction of telegraph charges by 3d per message. "In 1927-28, the gross surplus of the Post and Telegraph Department was £1,029,000, its net surplus only £20,000. Without raising the question of what became of that great total, we may say confidently that the drop in the return in 1927-28 wast not due to salaries. In 1923 there were 11,003 Post and Telegraph employees, in 1928 there were only 11,753. To account for the difference, the salary bill would have had to increase by £90,000, and even if we take the whole of the additional 750 men at an average -of £120, which is high, that would not anything like cover the shrinkage in net revenue. "Now, the reduction of the postage rates to the public coincided with the application of the salary 'cut' to the Civil Service, and to that extent, the postage concessions were made at the expense of the Post and Telegraph employees themselves." Mr. McKenzie hinted that the great differences between gross and net revenue in the Post Office in recent years were due to the fact that very large appropriations had to be made for the purpose of the telephone material depreciation. He said that his association was now concentrating its efforts on obtaining the institution of arbitration within the Department.