HASTY CRITICISM.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 210, 9 October 1914, Page 11

HASTY CRITICISM.

iRdUMIENt WItHOUT FACTS. ;tELEPIiONE SUBSCRIPTIONS. [From our own Parliamentary Reporter.] • '" WELLINGTON, October 8; ' "The Postmaster-General (Hon. R. H. Rhodes) informed THE SUN representative this evening that his attention had been called to the paragraph in the "Lyttelton Times" of October 7 .to the effect that it was in consequence ; of- Mr G. W. Russell's protest in Parliament that he had withdrawn the demand for payment of. telephone dues eight months ahead. Mr Rhodes states that Mr Russell's remarks in the House on -Monday evening had nothing whatever to do with the alteration, for, as a matter of fact, he had given directions early on Monday morning that subscribers who wished to do so might pay two. months', fees-now and six months/: at the beginning of December. He had decided upon this course as soon as; he heard that complaints were being made. As to the further statement in the paragraph, as follows:—"Of course, it may be that the period for which the immediate demand is now being made occurred to : Ministers as being appropriate, since it corresponds with the remainder of their term of office, "MiRhodes says that if the writer of the paragraph had spent a little time in the new regulation he would have seen that a different period for payment of telephone subscriptions had been established for each postal district. In the House on Monday evening last Mr Rhodes fully explained the reason for the change. Briefly, it is to obviate excessive pressure of work in the head oifiee every six months, when the many thousands of telephone subscriptions wtere being paid throughout the Do l aiinion, that the payments are to be spread over the whole year by fixing ai different period for each postal dis.try.ct. ■■' ■ • ■ :