RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31654, 15 April 1968, Page 13

RANDOM REMINDER

SUBSECTION II (b) . . .

Young schoolteachers are not alone in having to learn how to handle people when they are posted to remote areas of the country and left In sole command. One can only assume that the Post Office, in its training schemes, makes provision for instructing its young officers on how to handle people, and how to maintain an air of dignified efficiency even in the most trying situations. There is far more to the business than having

enough money in the till to account for the stamps sold; the purchasing public can test a young postmaster quite thoroughly, and in unexpected ways. There was a very young postmaster, still slightly damp behind the ears, who was sent to a very small town in the North Island. He had a post office, and if it was not an architectural gem, it was big enough to contain a counter and an area before it sufficiently large for a form to be installed for the comfort of the public.

Into this area, one morning, waddled a very large Maori lady, carrying in her arms a baby, a few months old. The Maori lady sat on the form and offered her infant sustenance from a source which was as ample as it was natural. The child, through no attack of shyness, declined the invitation. “Come on, come on," said the wahine, “or i’ll give it to the Postmaster.” There was probably something in the Post Office’s Manual to cover the situation.