POSTAL MONOPOLY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 112, 14 May 1931, Page 7

POSTAL MONOPOLY

THE CARRIAGE OF LETTERS ALLEGED CHRISTCHURCH BREACH f Per Press Association. ] CHRISTCHURCH, Alay 13. In the Alagistrato’s Court, Aulsebrook and Co., Ltd., were charged with having sent a letter for hire or ieward otherwise than by post, contrary to section 23 of the Post and Telegraph Act, 1928. Edwin Clark was charged with carry ing a letter for Lire or reward. The Crown Prosecutor the case was of great importance to the Department and was the first of the kind in Naw Zealand. The defendants were liable to a fine of £2O in respe*t of every letter delivered contrary to the Act. The case was, briefly, that a certaui storekeeper dealt with several firms, in. chiding Aulsebrock’s, and had been re ceiving from the defendant (’lark c nie.rcial papers troni the firm. Couns?i pointed out that tb. o Department had a monopoly of correspondence. an ( ] any attempt to deliver papers otherwise was detrimental to the revenue of the country. The defendants would have to prove that no reward was pa : d or received for the delivery of its lettc-£. If .it was proved that Clark had performed the duties gratuitously as a. friend of the firm the case would fail. Counsel for the defence said his clients had employed Clark since 1911. He was a trusted servant of tho firm and was employed for other purposes than delivering letters. Whatever had been done by Clark had been done to the knowledge of the highest officer o* the Department. Clark was not “gen orally employed,” in the wording of the Act, but only by a section of the wholesale firms. The purport of the Act was to prevent contractors from setting up in opposition to the Dcpa'tment. The defendant Clark said ho had received permission from ♦’he Fostmastir General, through Mr Sullivan ALP., in 1921, to carry on the work of delive--ing letters. Ho had receive,] a from Mr Sullivan who had interviewed the Postmaster-General, to the effect that there was nothing in the Act t<> prevent him continuing. He had been carrying on the delivery late-v exactly as \e had always done. He had never advertised himself as a public letter carrier, and had worked for none but certain wholesale firms, who paid him a fixed amount and not according to the number of letters ho delivered. In reserving his decision, the Magistrate said the case no doubt had been put to the Postmaster-General, but just how clearly it wa: impossible to say.