A WASTE OF EFFORT

Evening Star, Issue 19615, 22 July 1927, Page 8

A WASTE OF EFFORT

MAIL'■MATTER JH SHOUSTRIAL DISPUTES TROUBLES OF THE POST OFFICE , “A serious wastage of effort,” was liow a postmaster described tbo manner in which matter concerning industrial disputes was sent through tho Post Office. It appeared that in one case in Auckland over one-third of 2,000 letters sent through the- Post Office were returned because 1 tho people addressed had goiiQ out of business, left the district, or died.

At tho 'sitting of the Arbitration Court this morning the President (His Honor Mr Justice Frazer) read tho following letter, which had been sent by the Postal Department to the officer'in charge of the Labor Department at Auckland:—-

“On tho 29th ult., and covering a period of several days prior to this, 2,270 large registered rolls were handed in tho clerk of awards in connection with a recent award affecting the softgoods and leather firms in tho Auckland arbitration district. So far, 737 such articles have been returned as unclaimed foi reasons such as ‘defunct,’ ‘ gone,’ ‘ no address,” ‘ deceased,’ etc.— a percentage of over one-third of the whole. Upon looking into the matter 1 find that many of tho firms aro actually known to have been out of business for a number of years. The fact ol not having an up-to-date roll for the Auckland district is causing a large amount of unnecessary work and additional handling that could reasonably be avoided. The matter was mentioned to the clerk of awards, who stated that he was not responsible for the revision of tho roll. I should be pleased to hear from you whether it would be possible to have an improvement effected in order to remedy such a serious wastage of effort.”

His Honor added that the Secretary of tho Department had asked the court to bring tho matter under the notice of secretaries of employers’ associations and labor unions. Ho thought the difficulty might ho got over by making more use of local agents. If appeared that in country towns and country areas no chock was kept by the secretaries of organisations on employers who were subject to their different awards. Tho result was names got in of people who had been away for several years, or who had died. The Post Office had made complaints before, but this time it, had mado a definite complaint in writing that out of 2,000 odd letters over a third of them had been returned for the above reason. Some suggestion , had been made that costs might be inflicted on people responsible for a matter of this kind, but it seemed to him that tho simplest way was to bring the matter under the notice of those concerned. Ft seemed desirable that careful inquiry should be made through district agents to soo if the people proposed to bo cited were still in business. The court itself was also put to much trouble by the revision which it had to make in lists given to it. The unclaimed letters did not come to tho court all at once, but came in bunches of, say, tens and twenties. The court had then to strike out the names, of the persons on the unclaimed letters. That took a very considerable t : me. “ We hope,” concluded His Honor. “ that you will assist the court and the department in this.”