Postmaster’s Dislike Of Letters To Papers

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28542, 22 March 1958, Page 7

Postmaster’s Dislike Of Letters To Papers

One of the few things about his 42-year t term with the Post and Telegraph Department which did not appeal to the Chief Postmaster, Christchurch (Mr H., R. Pool) who retires at the end of this month, was the great number of persons who write to newspapers with various complaints about the post office. Often the post office had to reprimand or discipline members of its staff, he said in an interview. A great number of these persons retaliated by writing letters to newspapers. “And here are these people airing their views in the newspapers like any John Citizen,” he said. He thought a little more judicious handling of letters which were obviously designed to create trouble should be given by newspapers. “Not Always Bad” “But things don’t always turn out in bad light.” said Mr Pool. “I have always wondered what makes people write these letters, and one day I had the chance of finding out. I replied to a letter a little ineffectively, mainly because it was hard to understand exactly what the correspondent wanted to know. . So, I asked the correspondent to < come to see me if more information was required. She did, and she was a very beautiful woman. I was quite surprised. I always associated people who continually write letters to newspapers as a little odd. •

“Once a prominent businessman made a complaint through a newspaper that he had to wait 12 minutes to register a letter. I thought the matter important enough to go to see the man myself and talk the matter over with him. I went to his shop and had to wait 20 minutes before he would see me; I didn’t write to the newspapers about that,” said Mr Pool.

On the other hand, Mr Pool said he had often received letters from businessmen in the city after the publication of letters of complaint. Many times these businessmen had written to dissociate themseWes from these views. “The, business community of this city is extremely co-operative with the post office.” Women Workers Perhaps the most impressive change in the organisation of staff in the department since he began duty was the great number of women post office workers—especially postwomen, he said. “Postwomen were virtually unheard of until the Second World War, when we needed staff badly. Women still form about half our postal delivery staff, and they have been doing a grand job,” said Mr Pool.

Mr Pool said that when employment was difficult to obtain the Post and Telegraph Department had the best service from its employees. Although the threat of unemployment was severe, he was sure that too many jobs created a sense of carelessness in workers.

“The, post office was at its lowest ebb during the war. We could not discipline our staff in case they * left. The situation. is changing now,” he said."