THE COAL QUEUE

Evening Post, Volume XCIX, Issue 93, 20 April 1920, Page 2

THE COAL QUEUE

T» 7UK EDITO.T.

Sir,—All the trouble in ■connection with the acceptance of orders at the State coal office resolves itself into a question of the use of a cash register. ' This contraption may or may not be worth .the money it cost,'and may or'may not be an economical method of handling the business in normal times when there is a steady flood of .order? spread over the whole month. When,,. however, the orders for a month or even two months are contracted^ into a space of one or two days, it is obvious to the meanest intelligence that the cash register system is inadequate. No one fit to be out of Bedlam would seriously persist in trying to push the work through one solitary aperture. There muefc be any number of competent clerks in the Government Service—there are plenty among the general public—who could design a system capable of contraction or expansion to meet any situation. It is beyond comprehension that the .condition "of affairs which now obtains at the State coal depot should be allowed to cpntinu'e for another day._ There must- be some Cabinet Minister who,can step in and .rectify _things. It only needs the Mayor, whoso heart I. observe bleeds for the suffering public, to get the ear of the Prime Minister for five minutes and explain what stands in tho Way of common-sense action*, to have the matter put right forthwith.— I am, etc., ■ '

EFFICIENCY,

[We have received several other letters strongly urging a change in ,the present system.] .