TELEGRAPH MISMANAGEMENT.

NZ Truth, Issue 88, 23 February 1907, Page 4

TELEGRAPH MISMANAGEMENT.

Every day it becomes more and more apparent that the telegraph and telephone department is grossly mismanaged and that it' is up to the country to demand that' they shall be put into the lian|S;,of f .-j6me man or men who will briiig tfifem up to date, and run them thereafter on business lines, for their, own profit and the public, benefit- An instance of how well the department has perfected itself m the system of how not to do it is given m the anoinoiy of there being no telegraph station at so important a spot on our railways as Marton Junction, where there are oyer a hundred houses', and whence travellers by train-t-either express or on the Marton Jiinction^Taihape line— continually expect; to be able to despatch wires. A jiirictlon, of all places, should have telegraphic communication with the butside world, yet here is an important oiid cut off by 3& miles from the neatest office, which is m the town of Marton itsfelf, where train travellers have rid chance of reaching it. Lots of little tin-pot Stations along thel line have their telegraph offlee and operator, While a ' .place whefe thousands df travellers change traihs and may urgently need to wire .their move-, ments, is without. . . Moredver, the Marton office itself heeds a thunder-* ing good shaking- up, if its ■ \_-ork on Wednesday week is ii- sample of the average. A gentleman,, on that day* handed m at another office an urgent wire addressed to Marton Junction, and paid a shilling extra. for porter r age from Marton to ithe Junction.. He subsequently received a- communication from the office bearing the information that therd was , no . charge for' delivery at Marton • Junction and his shilling was returned. Rut tho sender -would much rathei* have paid five times that attjotiiit than have discovered -#hat he. did' viz., that his wke was riot delivered for' over four hours after, it was /Sent, ahd that the delay had rendered it useless. Now, why was this, and how do. the department propose to ex-plain away such gross heglect of -the interests of the paying public and .the duties of the office ? It is scandalous, ahd, like the mockery, of ' a telephone service of, Wellington, neither more nor less than a case of obtaining money under false pretences. , This wretched . business is not confined' to Marton. The other day a telegram, addressed to an employee m this office,, was J sent, of all places, to Christohurch, where it .remained a few days; when the mighty braiiiS of the Department .got :t0 ; %otk, arid, awoke , to , the fa£t .that there was a • < TruW' J office ki Wellington as: well as ope m Christ[Church (though if any misgivings ex* isted as (to which "truth" the wird was intended for they could have been settled by ari enquiry at our Christchurch branch office) and the wire was forwarded to Wellington, its proper destination, arid -a ch&rge of ;;B^4 • made. This Depafatment does badly need stirring Up with a long pole, v '