"THE BEST SERVICE FOR THE PUBLIC”

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6551, 7 March 1928, Page 4

"THE BEST SERVICE FOR THE PUBLIC”

.YORK OP THE POST AND TELEGRAPH DEPT. ADDRESS BY MR. G. MoNAMARA The assiduous secretary o; the Citizens’ Luncheon Club Mr J. H Stevens, had secured a particularly interesting speaker in the person of Mr. G, Mc»Namara. secretary of the P. and T. 1 Department, for yesterday's meeting | of the club. An address on the subj ject of the public service by an officer of Mr McNamara’s Importance was naturally listened to with particular attention by the large attendance of members. 'There are other large public do*, partments besides the P. and T. Department,” said Mr McNamara, in opening his address, ‘‘but none with such a multiplicity of works as ours. It is hard to give you a resume of all our work but at some time or another we do something for every single person in New Zealand." The enormous revenue handled by the P. and T. Department, proceeded the speaker, w;as to a great degree that of other departments of State, the majority of which paid into the P. and T. Department which had all this extra work to perform. The fact that *f the P. and T. revenue amounted to three and a quarter millions sterling last year, it' eventually amounted to 205 millions, showed that the P and T. did a good deal of work for other departments. Only Necessary Red Tape, “One of the grievances against is that we are full of red tape," continued Mr McNamara. “We are cep> tainly adopting in the P. and T. Department to-day the very best business methods that can be used. Red tape is only the regulations set up for the guidance of our officers. We depart from it very quickly when we see that It is needless. The P .and T. Department is in the very peculiar position that it Is seldom that It can canvass for business. At the same time, I can assure you, that if there is any business about, we get out after It very quickly. The Staff. T would like to say a few words upon the manner in which we build up our staff” continued the speaker. “Owing to the regulations, the P, and T. Department is required to build up its staff chiefly from juniors It is plain that at first a junior cannot be fitted to cope with tho varied work required in his department, so -we set out to teach him as much as we can. We do not try to teach him English, arithmetic, and so on, but in Wellington we have a staff of six highly qualified men who spend their whole time teaching our men. This is most necessary as there is no school in New Zealand which can teach a man tho work of the P. and T. The speaker then proceeded to sketch the wonderfully diversified channels into which the work of his department turned. On their staff, they numbered, electrical engineers qualified accountants, etc. but not many people knew that the Department also numbered in its ranks, all classes of tradesmen such as painters, plumbers, clockmakers, blacksmiths and upholsterers. They would see that the officers of the P. andoT. had a multitude of works to oversee and that their work did not consist only in posting letters and dispatching telegrams. Bringing in Business. At the request of tho Prime Minister the mail agents of tho P. and T. Department had underaken to interview every overseas visitor coming to New Zealand and to endeavour to induce them to stay at least a week in the country. This was only one of the side-lines in the work of a mail agent, yet one of these men had only lately been tho means of bringing £3OOO into the country. New Saving Devices. “Only lately,” said Mr McNamara, “I received advice that a new device we are taking up was operated at Levin. This device enables one mail bag to be picked up from the passing engine and another one containing letters only, to be thrown off.” This device the speaker pointed out, meant a saving of many hours In the d«* livery of malls. "I stand here as the man who first started rural mail deliveries,” said Mr McNamara, “and I can assure you that I had at first, a most unhappy time with the farmers as a result. Nevertheless, at the present time we have 16.000 farmers with bags at their gates. Farmers are hard men to convince but perhaps it was the f l wo required from them that caused the trouble. We insisted upon that £l, however, as it was necessary to us in I order to keep connection with a man when he left his farm.” The men of the P. and T. Department, continued the speaker, had done a great deal towards the improvement of the system of toll calls through the invention of a system by means of which girls in the toll stations could cut out many Intermediate wires It was hoped that soon subscribers would be able to dial right i through from Levin to Palmerston I North for instance. Public Telephones, Mr McNafnara alio mentioned another improvement which was in progress at the present time. In order to save space in congested areas, the Department was now installing these

public telephones in small shops where they could .be used. It was hoped to have these slot telephones every 100 yards in the cities before long. ■ Open to Suggestions. It was also said, continued Hr McNamara, that the P. and T. Department was not amenable to suggestions from outside. While he would point out that a tremendous number of these, suggestions wore received, he would also like to state that any of these which were of utility received the fullest consideration. The Department endeavoured to give efficient service to the public, not to please It. If they did this, their work would never cease. In addition to fully investigating all suggestions from outside, the Department accorded a monetary grant to any of its officers who made a suggestion that was adopted. This encouraged the men of the Department to give the best service possible to the public. There was no country in the world, which could give a better mail service than New Zealand, said Mr.

McNamara. This was not his own opinion alone but that Of business men who had been abroad and investigated these matters. "The P. and T. Department is anxious to give you its best service all the time,” concluded Mr McNamara "and any suggestion anyone may make at any time will be gratefully received while all complaints will be fully investigated. We punish our men just as any other employees may be punished but with regard to the suggestion that we have a number of men who are not interested in their work. I can only say that the public will find that the men of the P. and T. Department show a wonderful interest in their work with less incentive than many other employments offer.” The moving of a vote of thanks to Mr McNamara for his most interesting address was in the capable | hands of Mr Maurice Cohen.

STOCK 'SALE Dalgety and Co. Ltd., report having had a good yarding of stock at their Bulls Sale on Monday, sth instant. There was a keen demand for' all classes of stock and practically a total clearance was effected. Quotations. Shorn b.f. lambs 13/2, 15/., 17/5; w.f. lambs 9/-, 13/2; ewe lambs 20/6; M.A. ewes 10/-, 15/6; 4 and syr. ewes IS/7; forward ewes 14/-; empty cows £2, £2/5/-, £3/1/-, £3/10/-; forward cows £4/5/.; Potter bulls £5; weaner heifers £2/6/-, £2/16/-, £2/17/-; weaner pigs 3/-, 4/-, 5/- to 5/3; porkers 32/.; sows 20/- to 35/-. A herd of young Jersey cows made £7/3/6.