THE POSTAL SERVICE.

Greymouth Evening Star, 7 October 1908, Page 2

THE POSTAL SERVICE.

A somewhat extraordinary case was investigated by the Supreme Court at Auckland last;week ,and not only drew some strong"' 'remarks from the presiding Judge but caused a considerable amount of adverse comment in the public press. It appears that for some time past letters and postal notes had been going ! asitray in Auckland, and at last, on practically no grounds whatever, two of; the staff were arrested. They were refused bail, and for a long time remanded, spending the interim in gaol. When the charges at length came on for trial it transpired that the only evidence' connecting the young men with theimissing postal notes was that of some experts in handwriting, evidence which Mr Justice Edwards emphatically and scathingly designated as being insuijicient to hang a cat on. The accused men were discharged in the stereotyped phrase, "without a stain on theirj characters," but nevertheless the victims of.someone's very grave blunclct'. In answer to a question in tha House, the PostmasterGeneral said the question of compensation would bp considered when it is raised by the young men concerned. In the meantime they had been allowed to resume duty." It certainly seems that something is due to the officers whose good name has been so cruelly assailed, and under the circumstances the following resolution of the New Zealand Post and Telegraph Officers Conference must be held to err on the side of mildness i-r-VThis Conference of the

New Zealand Post and Telegraph Officers' Association places on record its sympathy with Messrs Cummins and Schmidt, members of the Association, in ,thc unfortunate position in which they were recently placed By being falsely accused of theft and forgery, and hereby very heartily congratulates them on their happy and full acquittal. The Conference also expresses indignatipn at the harsh manner in which they were treated while under arrest, and trusts that never again will any of its members be subjected to such Star Chamber methods. The Conference also hopes that the real offenders will be detected, and given punishment for the original offence, and for the Crime Which thdy>:"committed'' in; having innocent parties arrested, and the Conference asks the Department for an assurance that in future, before officers are arrested, the Department will have reasonable evidence against them."