The Evening Star SATURDAY, AUGUST 19, 1922. THE OLD POST OFFICE.

Evening Star, Issue 18051, 19 August 1922, Page 4

The Evening Star SATURDAY, AUGUST 19, 1922. THE OLD POST OFFICE.

Ax the annual meeting of the Otago Expansion League this week, and again by correspondence forwarded to us, the question of the old Post Office has been revived. Its present state and the use to which it is put certainly constitute a monument to the ineptitude and extravagance of .the administration of our affairs. The building stands on an island block in the heart of the town. With all sides of the square forming frontages such -a site' would be the envy of any big business firm. The extent to which it is utilised by the Government must form in such circles a source of amazement and contempt. In the forlorn-looking building there is housed one of the major departments, that of Lands. In various comers of it very minor departmental offices are located, with unostentatious and bewildering means of access, various Government stores are kept, and) a few departmental cars are sometimes parked. The rest of the interior is an empty wilderness, ventilated by the winds which have ingress and egress through broken panes in gloomily dusty windows. The public of Dunedin, used to the ways ox Government, has become accustomed to the spectacle of neglect and dejection, but by no means reconciled to it. Al efforts to stir the Government into action of some kind have so far failed. The present suggestion of a public meeting of protest is a good one, though there is the possibility of a pre-eleotiou promise and a post-election postponement on the part of the Government. Presumably the seemingly interminable do-nothing policy is excused on the score of economy. But, as has been pointed oifl again and again, it is false economy for the Government neither to properly use a peculiarly valuable site nor to allow anyone else to use it. ■

A massive silence distinguishes the Government’s plans—if it has any—in respect to this matter. That has been so ever since the Post Office was transferred from the old convenient and central spot to one which was neither. If it is wished to intrude on that silence, a certain amount of speculation is necessary, but only that which seems based on reliable grounds is here put forward- There appears to have long existed a certain amount of jealousy between the postal and telegraph branches of that big department. To remove it, if possible, and to secure co-ordination and control, a proposal was put forward that the chief postmaster in each of the four centres should have under him both the postal and - telegraph services. One of the requisites for such a change was that their respective quarters should be under one roof. These conditions obtained in Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch, but not in Dunedin. The internal arrangements of the old Dunedin Post Office were found inconvenient for the postal branch alone. The’, alternatives of finding other quarters for that branch or of reconstructing the existing ones to accommodate both branches'were considered. An officer was sent her to report on the possibility of the latter alternative. Persistent rumor has it that he came here with advance instructions to condemn the building. On the ostensible plea of a floating pile—an obstacle by no means insurmountable to engineers—the report was adverse to reconstruction. The postal people evacuated the place, the inconvenience of widely separated Post Office and Telegraph Office was perpetuated hero in an aggravated form, and the co-ordination of post and telegraph branches under the postmaster was blocked hero and elsewhere. Above all, Dunedin is penalised for playing the part of a passive pawn in a little game of departmental chess by having on© of ite best business sites occupied by a white elephant which the Government will not even 1 maintain in a state of outward decency. Some of those acquainted with the inside story have tentatively put forward the idea of demanding a Commission of Inquiry into the whole business, but they are not optimistic on the- point that, even if one were granted, it would elucidate the facts, or that the Government would do anything but ignore the obvious recommendations that would be based on them. In the meantime it appears that it is time that the tramways department accepted the deadlock as permanent, and altered the “Post Office” destination signs to something else. They have become a perpetual and unpleasant reminder to local passengers, and they are utterly ; V vis|tora •