The Waikato Times With which is Incorporated The Waikato Argus. SATURDAY, AUGUST 31, 1929. OUR POSTAL SERVICES.

Waikato Times, Volume 106, Issue 17804, 31 August 1929, Page 6

The Waikato Times With which is Incorporated The Waikato Argus. SATURDAY, AUGUST 31, 1929. OUR POSTAL SERVICES.

The success of our postal, telegraph and telephone offlees is not to i e gauged by the measure of profits hut by the excellence and cheapness of the services rendered. However, it must be gratifying to the heads of the Department to be able to report a credit balance of £523,809 for the first year in which they have operated as a trading department with accounts distinct from those of the general government. This amount is cleared after payment of interest on’ the invested capital. Such a result is especially gratifying in view of the extensions made during recent years in rural delivery of mails. One would imagine that, with such a profit, the department might well consider the question of making its services to the country dwellers cheaper and more extensive. Telephones arc so necessary to farm folk that every effort should he made to provide one for every home. Of course, it costs far more to lay the lines to an isolated settler's home than simply to connect up a city office or home in a street along which tire mains run, but the need is so great that the Government might well make a special allowance. Most country people are content with party lines, but they have to pay far more for these than town dwellers, are charged for private ( connections. Without a telephone, the backblocker may be unable to communicate with olliers in time of distress through illness or other cause, and members of the family may have to spend hours travelling to transact some small piece of business that would take only a few minutes over the telephone. It would certainly seem that they might be

helped without endangering the financial success of the postal department. They have also a claim for a reduction

of the special rural delivery charges, but the telephone need seems the more urgent.

A striking feature in the department’s annual report is the rapid increase shown in long-distance telephony. The revenue from this source’increased by more than 11 per cent., the total for the year being £442,896. The increase in ten years has been nearly threefold, while the telegraphic traffic has advanced at a slower pace, the revenue last year having been £404,565, against £316,099 in 191819. Turning to the Savings Bank returns, we find a decrease in business, but this is not due to any fault of the department; it is simply the result of Hie Government’s policy of refusing to give interest on deposits in excess of £2OOO.

People who have lived in other countries recognise that we in New Zealand are well served by the various offlees under the control of the Post-master-General. In general the officials are courteous and capable. There are, of course, exceptions, as in every walk of life. The idea that efficiency in a public service is impossible is dying out, although it is bc..ond question that 'in countries where political influence is strong the public has to endure corruption and all manner of disservice. Our postal services, it is true, lack the spur of competition with private enterprise, and it would not be easy to institute any system of co-operation or profitsharing in a business whose aim is not to earn profits but simply to keep down the charges. But competition Is not the only incentive, and one may often see postal officials exerting themselves in a manner that would not shame the most ardent profit-hunter. The new arrangement under which the accounts of the department are kept separate should be encouraging to the staff, making it possible to see the actual financial results and to appreciate the progress made from year to year.