INTEGRITY OF P. AND T. OFFICERS,

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 184, 5 August 1931, Page 5

INTEGRITY OF P. AND T. OFFICERS,

CASES OF CORRUPTION ARE FORTUNATELY RARE. The references made by the Chief Justice, in a bookmaking case in Wellington, to the corrupting of officers in a most important branch of the public service, are assumed in Christchurch to apply to the Post and Telegraph branch. Sir Michael Myers said that cases of the kind then before him were not only calculated to lead to corruption in the public service, but, in this particular instance, had done so. “ Cases of corruption are very, very rare,” said a civil servant to whom a reporter mentioned the matter this morning. He stated that he was unable to recall any cases in the South Island where such a thing had occurred among officers of the P. and T. Department. There had been isolated instances in the north, but they had been rare. A case that had attracted a good deal of attention in Auckland about two years ago, when several officers of the Department had been discharged, should not be confused with corruption. In that case there was disclosed no corruption, such as the Chief Justice evidently had in mind. The officers were considered to have been guilty of an improper Use of the telephone, but their honesty was not impugned.