POPULARISING A STATE ENTERPRISE

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 200, 21 May 1936, Page 8

POPULARISING A STATE ENTERPRISE

The business of the Post and Telegraph Department is a reliable index of the general condition of the country. Revenue figures for the financial year ended March 31 last are better by £222,296 than the previous year’s, but as they are only £552,000 in excess of the total of ten years ago, it is clear that although conditions have greatly improved by comparison with 1934-35, the country has still some distance to go before it can be said to have picked up the leeway of the depression period. Per head of population we might not have been posting any more letters had there been no depression—or sending more telegrams or making greater use of the telephone; but there would have been a larger population doing these things (for immigration would not have stopped), and the postal revenue would have been greater in proportion. Nevertheless, on the figures published to-day the Postmaster-General has reason for his expression of satisfaction. With a business concern like the Post Office, however, an increase of revenue is apt to be deceptive. In a young developing country like New Zealand, expansion of business should, under normal conditions, be automatic. The question to be asked, therefore, is how much of the increase in revenue is due to natural expansion reflecting the expansion of business in the country, and how much to the enterprise of the department in attracting new business by concessions likely to stimulate public patronage of its services. The nature of Post Office business lends itself to the adoption of the principle of small profits and quick returns, which means a large aggregate turnover and, in the end, large profits. Experience of penny postage and sixpenny telegrams has. proved that. We now have a similar illustration in an impressive increase in the revenue from the telephone services—from £1,190,773 in 1934-1935 to £1.251.060 in 1935-1936. Part of this is undoubtedly due to the substantial concessions made to telephone users. But here is an interesting revelation. In 1925-1926 the revenue from telegrams was actually £108,060 greater than it was for the financial year 1935-1936. The Post Office, says the Minister, has not lost on this movement, because during the same ten-year period the telephone and toll revenue has increased by £427,669. The moral of this undoubtedly is that the speedier and more convenient method of communication by telephone is becoming more widely recognised, and hence more popular than the telegraph. This tendency should be stimulated in every possible way. 'Poll concessions in the last two years have added to the attractiveness of the telephone method, and although the department cannot claim originality for this —the inspiration obviously came from the progressive policy of' the Kingsley Wood regime at the British Post Office——it has seen the wisdom of following an excellent example. Our most progressive Postmaster-General was the late Sir Joseph Ward, who brought to the management of the department when he controlled it the methods adopted by every business which. depends for its expansion upon cheapening and popularising its services, and hence magnifying its turnover. This principle is commended to *he present Postmaster-General. He may possibly find official conservatism somewhat of a hindrance, but he need have no hesitation in applying to his task as managing director of an important State business the methods which have proved so successful in private enterprise.