The Waipa Post. Published on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. THURSDAY, MAY 14, 1925. A STUPID BLUNDER.

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1641, 14 May 1925, Page 4

The Waipa Post. Published on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. THURSDAY, MAY 14, 1925. A STUPID BLUNDER.

IT Is not often that we have occasion to criticise adversely the action of the administrators of the. Post and Telegraph Department, especially since that progressive and businesslike Minister, the |Hon. J. Gordon Coates, assumed the Ministerial direction of this large and important department, hut the decision that all sections of the service except the telephone branch are to observe a really thorough-going close holiday to-day, just as if the day were a Sunday, does not by any means commend itself to us, more particularly since the decision —or at least the announcement to this effect was not made known until a comparatively late hour yesterday. The reason for the closing down of postal business is, of course, as a mark of respect to the memory of the Prime Minister whose mortal remains are being laid to rest early this afternoon. Few will cavil at a fitting tribute to the well-beloved statesman being paid by a Government department, but there is such a glorious inconsistency about the observance as to make it well-nigh ridiculous, besides being "doocidly inconvenient, bai jove," as the stage dude has it when he awakens from a stage nap to find someone has purloined his nether garments. The inconsistency is glaringly apparent when it is remembered that another department of State, almost as much in daily use as the postal service, is carrying on almost as usual. The Railway Department pays its tribute to its former Minister by stopping all trains for ten minutes from 1 o'clock this afternoon. The Postal Department closes down for the full 24 hours and, thus dislocated business in all directions. It is likely that the consequences of this arbitrary action —for it is arbitrary, the department being a service established and developed for and by the public—could have been avoided to a large extent had fair notice been given to its countless customers. We do not know yet how the public in other places have regarded the closure—for there are no mails and no telegraphs—but in Te Awamutu the edict from headquarters was observed so exactly that the mails arriving by last night's Main Trunk trains were not even sorted. The first intimation we had of any intended closure was yesterday morning, when the local postmaster advised that he was instructed, in common with all other post offices, to cease all activities for ten minutes from 1 p.m. to-day. That seemed a reasonable matter, and not likely to lead to any great difficulty. But at 2 p.m. we were again called by the postmaster and told that he had just received instructions from headquarters to close down absolutely for the whole day and observe it as a Sunday. Seeing that the Prime Minister passed away late on iSunday afternoon last, after an illness that wai generally realised would prove fatal, it savours of very bad management and lack of ordinary foresight on the part of the Postal Department to have been unable to declare a definite policy for observing in fitting form the passing of the Prime Minister until nearly three whole days after death had occurred. That lack of foresight put many people to very serious inconvenience, and in some cases did not leave those folk in a frame of mind that is expected when observing national mourning for the Dominion's Prime Minister. Yes, the Department committed a blunder —and a stupid blunder at that.