TELEGRAPH DEPARTMENT.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 8208, 2 August 1905, Page 5

TELEGRAPH DEPARTMENT.

Recent Leakages.

Full Inquiry to be Made

The Postmaster-General, in the House, last night, said the senior member for Dunedin, in his speech on Friday night, had quoted a "typical" telegram, and that a telegraph operator had given him the contents of a message from memory as

accurately as he could

If there was a

telegraph official in the employ of the # State in this country who so far forgot what was due to the public, and by breaking his oath conveyed information of that kind, whether to a member of the House or a private individual, he thought the general consensus of opinion of all rightthinking people in this country, whether for or against the present Administration, would be that no such person should be allowed to continue in the service. He proposed to have a full investigation held into this particular matter, with a view to ascertaining who had so far forgotten his duty to the country and the responsibility of his position. Nor did he think that the telegraph officers from one end of the Colony to the other should be branded as they were in the meantime branded, and charges levelled against a number of honourable men who were discharging their duty with a complete recognition of tho grave responsibility resting upon them. He proposed to ask the telegraph staff as a whole to co-operate in this enquiry. In order to place the question of absolute invoilability beyond all doubt, legislation was necessary to make any

person who received information from a

telegraph operator equally responsible, in wt order to avoid this disquieting and grave doubt cast upon the telegraph service. After they had gone further into this matter, he might ask Parliament this session to agree to further legislation which he might deem necessary in the interests of all classes in this country. (Hear, hear.)