ALLEGED DEPARTMENTAL REPRISAL.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXVI, Issue 17212, 13 February 1918, Page 3

ALLEGED DEPARTMENTAL REPRISAL.

A STRAIGHT-OUT QUESTION,

THE LIGHT THAT FAILED

(From Our Travelling Reporter)

Some little time ago. it will be remembered, the Post Office at .Marton | failed to pay its gas bill in time to secure the discount, and it was eventually forced to pay the full amount. A reprisal was ..llegedly taken in tl:«.t the Department installed a benzintlight, and Marton municipal gas was declared to be "not wanted." That, was, of course, for the time being. There were not a few however, who predicted that the new light would be unsatisfactory, when certain requirements had to be attended to by I boys. The reason for arriving at such a conclusion was that boys sometiniea have the habit of forgetting, and yet in an atfair where benzine is an important adjunct, big risks are taken if anything goes wrong with the works. Not so with the gaa. You turn on the tap, apply a match, and, hey presto, there is the light. It is very rarely if ever that the gaa installation goes "bung,"ana for all the years that the Post Office has been served by Marton municipality no one has had to grope rounc 'in darkness. The new light has only been serving the Government a short time, but apparently at last weekend it did the " Government stroke,' then struck. That, howevei. does not concern tbe Council much;] though unfortunately, in cutting off its nose to spite its face, the Department used moneys, which in these war timer and times of great need, might have been used in a very much more profitable direction. What the Council is most concerned in just now is a statement allegedly made by someone connected with Marton Post Office that the reason why the Department"substituted a benzine gas light for Marton gas was that the latter was unsatisfactory. With, a view to getting at the ''bottom of it" and ascertaining if such an allegation was made by anyone and by whoa1., the Borough Council at its meeting on Monday night instructed the Town Clerk to write to the Chief Postmaster at Wanganui, in whose district ■Warton is, and ask for a definite statement as to the reason why the

muncipal gas was cast aside for the new installation. Was Marton gas dispensed with because cf its allegedly poor quality: That is the question