LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 64, Issue 4536, 13 February 1942, Page 5

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

POST OFFICE AND PETROL Sir, —Can anyone inform me if the Post Office clerks have the power to ask motorists to call at the office to find out why a car is being used. I understood the Minister to say he was not going to tolerate plain clothes “pimps” and that his inspectors were to be “the Gentlemen of the Highway.” These uniformed inspectors are., authorised to stop and question motorists, but I am talking about clerks who peep out of windows. Also there is a difference between the inspector going to the motorist and the clerk wanting the motorist to drop his work and go to the office. There is a difference also in asking where he , got the petrol and prying into the motorist’s business by asking what he was doing. I would like to ask these postal clerks if they are as inquisitive about a car parked outside a church as they are when they see one parked outside the pub. Or do they ever see a car parked at the church? Also, if they want to be inquisitive, have they heard the story about a party of local girls who took a number of trucks to Papakura last Saturday and, in order to get a meal, were driven from there to Auckland. If so, do they propose to call the truck owners to their office for questioning—that is, if they have the power to conduct their own little court of inquiry.—Yours, etc., JOHN CITIZEN. (The latter part of the letter was ‘revised.” In its original form it was not permissible. The oil fuel regulations empower Controllers to review licenses from time to time, and that involves in some instances cancellation. In such circumstances prior inquiry is understandable, and is, in fact, a protection against injustice to anybody. There is a local Oil Fuel Advisory Committee, and complaints oi’ appeals should preferably go to that committee instead of publication being sought.—Ed.)