THE OTOGO DAILY TIMES TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1896.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10621, 13 October 1896, Page 2

THE OTOGO DAILY TIMES TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1896.

Th_ Post and Telegraph department is' a most useful servant to the public, and its utility and efficiency have always been cheerfully recognised. It is not perfect any more than any other human device; and it would not be a friendly action to impute to it anything like infallibility. There are 1404 post' offices in the colony, and anyone who transacts business—say, for. instance, posts a letter—at any :of them, may, as a rule,' rest assured of its punctual delivery. Of course a letter dropped into a receiving box does not find its way automatically to its destination. That element known as human fallibility discoursed upon recently by Dr K-AGGS, of Sydney, comes in, but the Post Office can fairly claim that it has reduced error to a minimum, and that the margin would be smaller still but for remissness on the part of the public! This is a part of the transaction over which the department has no control. We in New Zealand are much addicted to epistolary communication.Though our population has not reached three-quarters of a million, including Maoris and the strangers within our gates, we write yearly 3895 letters, and if we include letter cards, 39-87 per head of the population. The total number, 26,968,955, is very formidable indeed, and represents an increase o^ 1,144,198 for the year. We are also much given to the use of the telegraph in this colony. There were sent last year 2,124,211 telegrams, which represents an increase^ of 90,411 for the year. There is no doubt that the mining boom in Auckland is responsible for great part of this increase. In respect of activity in communication New Zealandersbear favourable comparison with any other community in the world. The Post and Telegraph department also enjoys the distinction of returning :a large annual profit to the State. For last year the balance of revenue oVer expenditure was .£33,402 Is 9d. Por the previous year the balance was .£57,478 13s sd, and the decrease is accounted for in several ways. A considerable sum was owing at the end of the previous year, and has.been paid since. Last year also the Railway department was paid .£11,604 15s lOd for services rendered, and on general expenditure consequent upon the expansion of business there was also an increase. It is the custom in preparing the railway report to state the total cost of the lines and to indicate the percentage of profit realised on the gross outlay. This is not done with respect to the Post and Telegraph service, so we are not informed of the percentage of profit, and nothing is set down for interest in the expenditure. "In contemplating the profit it is necessary to remember that the department is especially fortunate in having a number of services rendered to it at very small outlay. A railway

' station master may have, charge of tha local post office, and receive for his services perhaps i-0 or .£2O from j the department. Country postma-ters who conduct the local post office in connection with their business also receive very small: sums, as do school teachers in similar positions. Undoubtedly the public convenience is furthered by this system, which is one of wide adoption elsewhere, but it is complained that one result of it is that officials in the Post and Telegraph department are more liberally paid than other public servants of similar grade in other departments. As already stated, the Post and Telegraph department pays the Railway department for carrying the mails and parcels and for the services of its officials who do combined railway and post office duties. It also oharges the Railway department for services rendered, such aa the transmission' of letters and telegrams, for telephone exchange subscriptions, and- for maintaining its wires. This is part of the new system by which each department of the public service charges another for services rendered. But this system is not adopted in entirety. The Post Office still transmits Government letters and telegrams free of charge. If the estimated value of these services were added to the revenue the surplus would have been _6124,594 3s lid. If the Post Office department is to keep a strict account with the Railway department, it seems only fair that.it should do so with other departments. Though nothing may appear to be gained by one department charging another and being charged for services rendered, the system is a check against extravagance. The temptation to transact business by telegram is so great that it was found that public business occupied the wires unduly. If we mistake not, it was the Railway department which insisted upon getting credit for the work it did, and thus initiated the inter-charge system. At present if it even carries a policeman from Dunedin to Port Chalmers the Police department is charged with his fare.

The chief event in the postal year covered by the report .was the reimposition of the original rule against delivering delayed telegrams before the first postal delivery next day. It was found that delayed telegrams were gradually supplanting ordinary telegrams. To compensate for this revived restriction a sixpenny telegram of 12 words, including address and signature, was adopted. The enforcement of the rule with respect to delayed telegrams was instituted in December last, and the effect was a decrease in that class of message, and an increase of ordinary business, the net result being a gain to the department of i. 293 lis 4d. The sixpenny telegram'was initiated in June, and the returns for that month and July show an increase of 2897 per cent, in number and of 2113 in value as against the same months of the previous year. Much of the increase, however, is due to an adventitious cause—namely, the mining boom- in Auckland, where ordinary telegrams increased by 4750, urgent telegrams by 15226, and cable messages by 36107 per cent, in number. The increase of business is therefore not a test of the success of the new system, and there has been considerable complaint from the commercial community to the effect that the so-called concession was a barren one. The message is practically confined to six words, since the department will not register telegraphic code addresses. This piece of red tape might very well be abolished in the interests of those who are the best customers of the department, and we urge the Postmaster-general to give the necessary instructions for the,change. Occasion is taken in the report to mention the retirement from the Ministerial Administration of Mr Waed. That gentleman held office as Postmastergeneral from January ilß9l to June 1896, and during his term of office, it is claimed, " many improvements in the service and liberal concessions to the public were made. Among the latter may be mentioned the reduction of international and intercolonial telegraph cable rates, the reduction of telephone exchange rates, the introduction 0f..;-_£s postal notes and letter c^rds. liberal amendments in the commercial and printed paper post, and other material reductions in the postal rates-following upon the colony entering the, Postal Union, as well as the introduction of sixpenny telegrams on the Ist of June last." This means, in other words, that the department claims to have been progressive, and Mr Ward is certainly entitled to warm public recugnition for his administration of the department.