COST OF A TELEGRAM.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19770, 7 November 1929, Page 12

COST OF A TELEGRAM.

♦— — MR W. J. POLSON, M.P., REQUESTED TO PAY. (press association telegram.) DANNEVIRKE, November 6. The quest of Mr W. J. Poison, M.P. for Stratford, the Dominion president of the Farmers' Union, for information has resulted in his falling foul of the Dannevirke County Council. The information whieh he requested was forwarded by collect telegram. Mr Poison refused to accept it, and the County Council later decided to ask him to pav the amount involved, Is -d. At to-day's meeting a letter was received from Mr Poison explaining that in order to get information to enable him to see that the fair thing was done to his fellow-farmers, he dispatched over 100 telegrams at his own expense asking for information, not by collect telegram, but at the earliest convenience. He had followed the general practice in refusing to receive Dannevirke's and three other telegrams, because he imagined that they had been sent collect by mistake. He asked if the Council considered it reasonable to charge him for a collect telegram under the circumstances. If so, he would forward Is 2d by return mail. The Council decided to inform Mr Poison that it considered the request a reasonable one and that it required payment. In connexion with the same matter a letter was received from the Dominion secretary of the Farmers' Union stating that the chairman of a certain North Island County Council had called at hia office and handed him Is 2d in stamps with which to pay the cost of the Council's telegram to Mr Poison. The donor had stated that he was so angry when he read the Press report concerning the' discussion about the telegram that he asked that the enclosed amount be forwarded. The Council decided to write to the Dominion Farmers' Union stating that the Council resented the interference of the Farmers' Union in what was considered a business transaction, and also decided to refund Is 2d to the Farmers' Union.