A POPULAR PROMOTION.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 165, 6 April 1908, Page 9

A POPULAR PROMOTION.

THE NEW ASSISTANT POSTMASTER. MR. E. C. GANNAWAY REMINISCENT. Tho career of Mr. Edward C. Gannaway, who has just been promoted from senior 'mail-room officer to Assistant Postmaster in Wellington, is surely unique, if it is not a record for tho service. . He entered the servico in this city thirty-three years ago last February, and' has never, during that period, been connected with tho stall' of any oliico other than tho 'Wellington Post Office. An unassuming, conscientious, ■ and tireless worker, Mr. Gannaway, who has always been held in tii© highest regard both by those, above ana belo\7him in wie service scale, has seen tne business grow irom something quite liisignihcant to its present enormous dimensions as . probably no other officer in the service has, for, as lar as lie is aware, there is no one engaged '■ under tho chimes " at present who has been as continuously connecued with the oliico as ho has. From the timo ho was a cadet, with oiily a few months' experience, to tho present aay, Air. Gannaway, has been entrusted with the key of tho mail-room, and, looking back over the years, he . cannot but marvel how it was that lie, as a youth, was trusted in such, a manner, and how ho accepted .the trust placed upon his'boyish shoulders. . When Mr. Gannaway joined tho Wellington .Post Office in February, 1875, tho wonting staff (mail-room and counter) consisted of four persons pnly, in addition to which there were two letter-carriers to distribute the.mails throughout tho town. To-day there arc I J7 hands engaged on tho mail-room and oounter staff, and there are 62 lettercarriers. _ N Without any suspicion (jf boastftilness (nothing is farther away from Mr. Gannaway's disposition, as all who know him are aware), a Dominion reporter dragged from him that tho work of tho Post Oflice was a good deal more strenuous on occasions in the past than ever ,is tlio case now. It was no. very uncommon experience for the extremely limited staff to havo to. work twenty hours at a stretch to get through a big English mail. There were fewer, steamers in those days, and tho accumulated mails made a pretty heavy load when they did arrive, as, for instance, at i-.tho time when Wellington had direct paddle-boat connection with San Francisco. Some of the older residents would remember tlio Nebraska and the Nevada, which used to thrash their, way . across tho Pacific in the. lato 1 J 7o's, The arrival of ono of these boats was'an event in those days—at least it was to young Gannaway, who had to go short of sleep in order to clear the mails as soon as possible. No overtimo 'was paid .in those times either. What, would the cadet of today think if he • was ordered to trundle a, hand-oart, up and down the wharf bringing up tho mails., and then set to and sort for sixteen or eighteen hours on end with no overtime pay to cheer him-up? Mr. GannawayJs experience of the. latter-day cadet is that if placed . under , such circumstancos ho would drop dead! ' . ' ' Tno : growth of tho business has brought about conditions that; aro luxurious compared with those of over thirty years Ago. Then two, at least,, of the .staff of,'four had to .be"at the office at 3.30 a.m. oil' Mondays', and Thursdays to attend to tho ' mails. for Wanganui and along that road, which left Ser coach at 5 a.iii.- Th% coaches wero owned y'the.lato Mr.: Andrew Young, and one of his, drivers wiis Mr. A. Hall, of Hill Street, late proprietor of the' Wellington horso ,tramWays. There were no trains then at all, and, apart from tho 5: a.m. Wanganui coach on two days a week, a coach left for the Wairarapa, via the Hutt, at 6 o'clock every morning, so that half of. the staff had to be down at 5.30, a.m. every, day—summer and winter.:

Not only wero the hours peculiar in thoso. days, but the working quarters were quite unliko.the present mail-room.' Tho Post Office then was an old wooden building that could put'forward ho, claim to be considered watertight,, and when the rain poured downtliero was all sorts of manoeuvring, inside. fo get a place to work in where one could keep dry. It was so,bad in places t)iat : Mr. Gannawny has seen some ,of tho . staff using umbrellas inside / , Mr.\Gannawayi,has been attached to ;the -.mail-room' staff ail these years, working himself gradually into tho senior position, assiduous to a fault in his duties, always about when there'was work to be-doiio,. and never sparing himself-in execution. 'None of tho recent promotions is more popular; or well deservod than Mr. Gannaway's annointment to bo Assistant. Postmaster in Wellington, and he has received telegrams from many narts of the Dominion'warmly congratulating, him on'his'elevation.. ". ..