The Taranaki Herald. PUBLISHED DAILY. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1899.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 11625, 14 September 1899, Page 2

The Taranaki Herald. PUBLISHED DAILY. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1899.

When, three or four years. ago, the local Post and Telegraph offices were removed from the western to the eastern wing of the Government Buildings it was thought that the additional accommodation thus provided would meet all requirements for many years to come. So rapid, however, has been the growth of the business of the Department that already very great inconvenience is felt by the public as well as by the officials in transacting that business. To give an idea of the great strides made we may mention that the number of registered letters handled has increased 831 per cent, since 1890, and the number of parcels by HI per cent The number of ordinary letters bandied must ako have grown in almost equal proportion, and is exceeded only by the four centres, and Napier, Wanganui, and Invercargill. The money order business done here is only exceeded by that done at. the four centres, Napier, and Wanganui. The Savings Bank business is eleventh In point of volume in the colony. The transaction of this business involves a very large public traffic in the office, and it is nothing unusual to find the limited space placed at the disposal of the public crowded to inconvenience. Not only are there the Post and Telegraph, Money Order, and Savings Banks departments carried on in the one pokey little office, but there is in addition a large volume of business, transacted in connection with the Public Trust, Advances to Settlers, Government Insurance, Land and In» come Tax, and Customs Departments. The OIJ Age Pensions are paid out, fishing and gamo licenses itsued, machinery fees and sheep rales paid, all in the same office, und on the, top of all is the registration of births, deaths, and marriagos. If the business lias so soou overtaken the accommodation provided a few yeard ago, what must be the position in another year or two ? Already the pressure is frequently very great, especially on Saturdays, when the utmost patience has to be exercised by those whoso business takes them to ihejj office, and, judging from the rapid pro. | gres3 of the town and district, in another year it will be simply impossible for the officials to carry on the business. The officials themselves are working under great disadvantages, and suffer not only through overwork, but through the uuhealthiness of the over- i crowded office also. What seems to be j required is that the whole department j should be shifted from the Government I Buildings to new premises more con- j veniently situated and better adopted i for the purpose. Wo understand that the Lends and Survey Department is also crammed for room, and we would suggest that the whole building should f be given up to it and the Deeds Office, and that the Customs Department should bo housed with the Post and Telegraph Office elsewhere. A con venient site would bo on the Harbour Board reserve near the railway station, where it would be more central for the business people, and handier for the conveyance of mails between the office, j and the railway, in which respect a considerable saving would be effected. The Customs Department would find it more convenient to the bonded stores ; in fact, in every respect it seems to us that the change would be a beneficial one. Nor would the cost be very great. A considerable expenditure on the Government Buildings is absolutely necessary at once if the whole of the Departments now housed there are to remain, but if the Post and Telegraph Office and tho Customs Department were shifted very little would require to be done there. In a new building, designed specially for tho purpose, the business of tbo Pobl anil Telegraph Department could be carried ou with grealeijexpedition and

economy, and, what is more, with much t greater comfort and convenience to the public. The saving on the conveyance ' of mails to and from the railway station would, if the site mentioned were chosen, amount to a considerable sum annually. There is one branch of the service which we have omitted to mention, 1 and that is tbe Telephone Bureau. Tho New Plymouth Bureau in the eighth largest in Ihe colony and has a number oE country bureaux connected with it, through which there is a large and increasing business. Before long the work will necessitate an .addition to tho Btaff, which even now has none too much room. It is perhaps not too late for a change to be made in the conternplntcd alterations to tbe Government Buildings, and we feel sure that the course we now suggest would betha wisest and most economical in the end.

Is another column Mr H. W. Williams takes exception to arguments contained in an article in this column on Monday. Probably our readers are weary of the seemingly endless discu3iion upon the Prohibition question, but we must crave their patience a little longer. Mr Williams says wa argue that as demand creates supply, you cinuot check the demand by cutting off the supply. What we really contend is that tho abolition of lioßnse does not cut tff the supply, except in the legitimate direction ; that, on the contrary, it encourages a fresh supply through illegitimate and almost uaseen, therefore more dangerous channels. Then Mr W. says that the licenae system created the appetite for liquor. How can that be? The appetite for liquor existed centuries before , the license system was thought of ; in I fact, the system of license was adopted J for the regulation of a trade alreidy in existence. As to, the frequenters of slygrog shops in Clulha being in almost every case " hardened old topers," we have only our correspondent's word for it ; and it is at leas'; open to question whether joung people who have never learned the taste of drink are likely or not to learn it in the Clulha now. How did those boys of 17 who, according to the Tapanui Courier, got hslphsily drubkinthe public street of that town last Christrras learn the taste of it ? Not iv publichouses. Then if statements aboub the effects of Prohibition in America have little or no bearing upon our position io New Z;aland, why have Prohibition advocites so freely quoted the Prohibition States ia support of their sadi? It appears thab it ia only since Mr Collin3 so effectually showed th\t whatever there h to be 1c arned from the experience of tliß United States on tbe queition leaches us that Prohibitnn does not prohibit, and that cim •, poverty, and insanity exist in at least a* great a degree in the States where thsy hwe prohibitory laws a 9 in those where fcbe license system is ia vogue, it is only tincG Mr Collins has proved this ttat the experience of the United States ii being decried by the Prohibition's aa having no bsaiiog on our position here. As to Prohibition being uniformly successful in rural districts, we hive the exauple o? the" King country before our eyj^ ; in that district the sale of alcoholic liquors is absolutely prohibited, with the result that we have heard of a missionary working in that district stating that he 'would sootier see licensed houses there 'than that the present state of things should continue.