Hansard Report Of What Mr. Sheat Said In Raising The Matter

Wanganui Chronicle, 28 October 1948, Page 4

Hansard Report Of What Mr. Sheat Said In Raising The Matter

The matter of the Wanganui night mail delivery was raised in the House of Renresentatives on October 15. Hansard records Mr. Sheat, as saying on that occasion: There had been some suspicion in the minds of the nubile about the recently inaugurated overnight mail service between Wellington and the Wanganui and Taranaki district, per medium of a truck carrying the "Southern Cross’’ newspaper. Were tenders called lor that service, or, as had been suggested, was the service merely to subsidise the subsidiary company formed to distribute the newspaper? It had been stated that the service was instiuted against the advice of some of the departmental officials concerned. As there were alternative means of transport, there appeared to be grounds for the suspicion that the service was instituted just for the benefit of the Labour Party’s newspaper distribution agency. It had always been possible lor mail, posted by 5 p.m., to be carried bv railway buses from Wellington for delivery in Wanganui the following morning, and in other districts where the newspaper delivery service was being utilised for mails there were also alternative services. There appeared to-be grounds for suspicion. Th Hon. Mr. Hackett: Only in the minds of a few people. M. Sheat said that there was a suspicion that the main object of the service was to subsidise indirectly the carrying firm that had received the contract. On October 19. Mr. J. B. Cotterill (Govt., Wanganui) asked the Post-

master General (Mr. Hackett) whether he would give an assurance to the people of Wanganui ana Taranaki that additional facilities provided for those districts through recently established night mail service would not be cancelled, as was advocated on Friday by the hon. member for Patea. Mr. Sheat (Patea): Sir. I rise to a point of order and ask for your ruling as to whether that question is in order. I did not advocate the cancellation of that service. Mr. Speaker: The question will go forward in the usual way and if in tue meantime 1 consider that it is irregular, the matter can be adjusted. (At this point Mr. Holland rose to further point of order with the result that Mr Sheat was given permission of the House to make a statement. Hansard records the statement as

follows). ( Mr. Sheat: The question of which the hon. member for Wanganui has given notice states definitely that I advocated the discontinuance of a certain mail service. I did not do anything of the kind; all I did was to exercise my right to ask certain questions regarding the arrangement of that service and why a special contract was given to the proprietors of the “Southern Cross” to carry that mail. I did suggest that a similar service could have been provided by other means, and what I endeavoured to ascertain was whether any other alternative method had been explored. including the possibility of carrying mail by Government-owned ser-vice-cars or bv Government railways. At no time did I advocate the discontinuance of the service.