TELEGRAPH MESSAGE BOYS.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4317, 28 March 1901, Page 2

TELEGRAPH MESSAGE BOYS.

WHAT THE DEPARTMENT THINKS ABOUT IT.

FREQUENT GRANGES OF PROMOTION.

Surprise was expressed in the Secretary's office of the Post and Telegraph Department to a “Times” representative yesterday that any schoolmaster in Wellington should he under the impression that boys entering the service as telegraph messengers should have no prospects of advancement, as was stated in these columns recently in an article discussing tno outlook and pursuits of “ our boys.”

The real fact is that the PostmasterGeneral’s express policy has always been that vacancies arising from time to time in the service .should, as far as possible, bo filled by promoting telegraph messen. gets who have acquired the necessary competence. At the present time there are about 340 telegraph message boys employed in the colony. No fewer than forty-one have been promoted to superior positions since the Ist of Janu. ary. Referring particularly to Wellington, it has been ascertained that, out of a total of sixty-four boys employed hero eleven have received promotion within the three months on the eve of expiry. It is obvious that if the same rate of promotion continues more than half the boys in the service here will receive advancement in the con iso of the year in one shape or another. E-vory telegraph messenger, continued our represoutative’B informant,on entering the service, is encouraged -to learn telegraph operating. Some lads, otherwise smart, it seems, never learn the art of operating, while others acquire it without difficulty. As soon as these latter have qualified their .claims re-; ceivo consideration for any cadetships which may have become vacant. Lads who do not show the necessary aptitude for such work are given opportunities of accepting positions suoh as junior lot. ter-carriers, assistant post ” office messengers, etc., the minimum salary for which runs from £6O. increasing by bi-ann'Sal increments to £lO5. when fur. ther opportunities for promotion to higher closes are afforded. It should be mentioned that the fact of a lad being appointed a general let-ter-carrier does not necessarily mean that he will ho long retained in such a position. The- majority, of junior letter-carriers are, of course, at the smaller offices, and it is the duty of postmasters in such offices to give the young men every opportunity of acquiring a knowledge of postal and 1 telegraphic work in order that they may in due course qualify for promotion to the, clerical di. vision of the service.

The departmental official interviewed by our representative laid stress on the fact that the enormous expansion in the business of both branches of the service —postal and telegraphic—during the last few .years has enabled the department to promote so many lads to higher—and, considering the ages of the appointees, lucrative appointments—that the difficulty now felt in the principal offices is a shortness of reliable telegraph messengers. This clearly indicates that grown lads are not detained in that grade .of the service, which consists in' delivering telegrams, an undue length of time. From this it appears that the belief of Mr .CL J.. Hardy, the schoolmaster in question, that there are no prospects before a lad entering the service as a telegraph messenger is without founds, tion. in fact. Indeed, the contrary is the fact. For it may he said that the prospects before a boy entering the telegraph department as a-;messenger are at the present moment more favourable than ever. A smart boy in these days of rapid business expansion in every direction should be able to get a cadetship, or other position, within a very few years of his appointment.