REFORMING THE POST OFFICE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 57, 8 March 1934, Page 6

REFORMING THE POST OFFICE.

I The decision to change the administration • of the British Post Office along the lines recommended by the Bridgeman Committee in 1932 is plain recognition of the need for » business-like methods in that State Department. A committee of three, with the j Postmaster-General, Sir Ivingsley AY'ood, as - chairman, is to act, to all intents and [ purposes, as would a board of directors in : a private commercial house, and to organise and direct the Post Office as would that , directorate. Nor is that incentive forgotten 1 which in a private firm indicates progress— l that of profits. The Bridgeman report says : in that connection, "A most serious defect was that of the Treasury taking all the profits, and removing the natural incentive to progress and economy." Now only a definite sum is to be paid into the Exchequer, and any surplus is to be spent in the best interests of the Post Office and therefore of the public. This, by the way, is the opposite system to that adopted in New Zealand, where the bulk of Post Office profits, after interest has been met, are paid into the national funds to help to balance the Budget. There is another point of resemblance to an ordinary business. If profits are to be made, the business man realises he must consider his clients, and think from their point of view. He must also advertise his wares, so as to increase first his sales and then his profits. The British Post Office is doing precisely this. A publicity campaign has been inaugurated, and subscribers whose accounts arc overdue arc to be treated with consideration. A cynic might say that when Government officials become polite the millennium is at hand, and while this would be a distinct slur on a large class, it is a fact that the attitude of the English Post Office towards the public has been the subject of endless jest. The reorganisation is an admission that these jests have had some basis in fact, and that State ownership can learn something from private enterprise.