"GENERAL UTILITY."

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 230, 29 September 1930, Page 8

"GENERAL UTILITY."

P. AND T. DEPARTMENT. - i ' ;• v • ' '• Y * HUGE BUSINESS -CONCERN. HIGH STANDARD OF EFFICIENCY,

"Although no "doubt there will always be a difference of opinion between the .association and the administration concerning working .condition! and other matters, there-is one point upon which I think we can all agree. We can take pride in that we belong to one of >thc greatest Departments of State," said Mr. J, Madden, acting-assistant postmaster at Auckland, when speaking at the P. and T. annual reunion on Saturday evening.. : "The name Post and Telegraph Department is really a misnomer," he continued. "It should be The General Utility Department. The former nape has a limited application to the manifold activities into which the Department enters." i Mr. Madden' then proceeded to give I some idea of the amount of work underj taken by the P. and T. Department. "It will be found that in collecting revenue land making payments on behalf of our own and other Departments, the total sum handled during the twelve months ended March 31, 1930, was £206,000,000," he said. "As revenue collected on behalf of, our own Department was absut £3,750,000, the enormous volume of work handled for the general Government will be readily recognised. "The high standard of efficiency reached has reflected in remarkably few complaints of a serious nature reaching the Department ai:d tho- particularly small'percentage o ' '■»;* in transactions on articles handled, To show that tlie claim for efficiency supported by fact, it is only necessary to mention that on. the postal side of the business alone. 274,580,000 .articles, of all classes were safely ; and correctly delivered during the last twelve months. In less than 3001) cases only it was not possible to deter : mine the disposal of packets received in the post. When compared with the. total number of articles posted, this represented a loss of .001 per cent, or one in 10,000. '"I think most business linns would be proud to point'to such results—re-, suits which are a great testimonial to the. ability, and'-,integrity, of the staff.'"'