The Wanganui Chronicle FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1939. THE WANGANUI POST OFFICE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 254, 27 October 1939, Page 6

The Wanganui Chronicle FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1939. THE WANGANUI POST OFFICE

-yHE laying of the foundation stone of the Wanganui Post Office provides one of those occasions which marks the progress of lhe city. Wanganui has for a long time been in need of further postal facilities, and it may h'ave waited overlong for such provision as has now become assured. The Postmaster-General, the Hon. F. Jones, took the opportunity 1o stress the development, of the past, and that past is one wliich is very gratifying indeed. It has been a record of performance and accomplishment. That performance and accomplishment has been the work of men and of women on farms, first in clearing lhe bush, second in developing their pastures, third in calling for various facilities of business, communication and transportation. In this effort it has been necessary for the Governments concerned, and min r |>art ieulary for the settlers and the. traders and the professional men of Wanganui to engage in transactions far beyond the limit of their own cash resources, and it is because throughout the history of the district and the Dominion the credit-status of those who have conducted both national and private efforts has been good, they have been able to borrow money from various agencies and utilise speedily the natural resources of climate and land to raise lhe level oil production Io what it is at the present day. At. the back of the Wanganui Post Office, lhe foundation stone of which was laid on AVednesday, stands the fact that the moneylender has been available, providing tlie funds for the speedy development of natural resources. There is a tendency to-day io decry the lender, and in recent i years he has been shamefully -wronged by barefaced robbery through judicial process. It .should be remeinbered. however, that the new Post Office which is about In be erected would imt have been required had not credit been available Io those who turned litis district into a productive, area. The postal services of this community are, therefore, the reflection of private enterprise coupled with credit facilities, but not of Governmental goodness. It is interesting at. this juncture io compare two jobs: one the excavation whit-li was made for the foundations of the new Post Office, and the other lhe cutting of the hill to provide the new entrance to Cook's Gardens. If lhe same rate of progress which is discernible in lhe latter job were to have, obtained in respect to the Post Office excavations, there would have been no ceremoney of laying the foundation stone yesterday, nor I would such ceremony have taken place during the current year, I nor next. Ii would be interesting indeed to learn the yardage cost of I in- excavation of lhe Post Office foundations—a difficult and wet job—and the yardage cost of shifting the sand at the entrance to Cook's Gardens, which is a comparatively easy job. The latter has been going on for months and months, a job that any contractor would have finished long ago. Had this socialistic effort been used to produce lhe Wanganui district the public ■could In- still living in raupo huts and subsisting on an insufficiency of the most primitive food and clothing. The Post and Telegraph Department is sometimes pointed to as an excellent experiment in .socialism; it is nothing of the kind. It has never occupied a building which has been built by the i application of the principles of socialism; it has never used I‘qiiipment and material produced by the application of the principles of socialism; and it. has never been able to support itself by the business offering from lhe Government’s soeailised departments. The Post Office is housed, equipped and supplied with business by private enterprise, and it does most of its rural deliveries by the same privately-conducted effort. The laying of lite Wanganui Post Office foundation stone is, therefore, a tribute to private enterprise. The slate of the entrance io Cook’s Gardens is eloquent evidence of the inadequacy of the. Socialist principle when applied to a practical task. This line of tlioiigiit was doubtless in lhe minds of the audience at the Post Office ceremony, and accounted for (lie lack of public enthusiasm which marked that ceremony. The old question prompted itself in the minds of lhe people: "Where was tile money to come from to pay for it?” It is not a popul® question to ask, Inn the public is entitled to ask whether the Government is behaving with appropriate caution when it is equipping buildings in the de luxe tradition up and down the country while denying to telegragh boys and postmen the uniforms in which to carry out their duties. The issue of uniforms In these employees <-<>ust i 1111 e part-payment; the uniforms iiave been supplied in order that the workers shall be appropriately clad in strong garments which shall resist the more than ordinary near and tear involved in carrying out their duties. To erect, buildings, ami to deny clothing to the low-rate workers. Io add io public works wages and to reduce postal employees wages i fur 1 lie requiring of the latter to buy their uniforms is a reduction in wagesi is not sound business. It is doing the spectacular thing at the expense of the less spectacular. Small wonder that there was no enthusiasm at lhe ceremony at the Post (Iftiee on Wednesday.