The disclosure was made in evidence by an official of the department in a case now being heard in Sydney in which a contractor and military officers are accused of having conspired to extract undue profits out of foodstuffs supplied for military purposes.
The revealing witness spoke especially of the employment of the system of ''tapping'' telephone lines in cases in which people were suspected of being concerned in transactions of the nature of trading with the enemy.
But he made it known also that the ''listening'' or ''tapping'' was resorted to for other purposes.
For instance, if a business man complained of being charged for an excessive number of calls registered against his telephone, a departmental listener and note-taker would for a period listen to every conversation over that line.
He had discovered in such a case that the great number of calls was due to the proclivity of the female employees of the business man for ringing up their ''boys'' when the ''boss'' was out.
The witness naively admitted that he had been ''astonished'' at some of the supposedly very private talks which he had overheard.
So much public discussion arose over this disclosure or regular departmental listening to telephone talks that the Postmaster-general felt it expedient to make a formal statement in defence of the system and to tell the public that the ''listeners'' were sworn to secrecy excepting in cases like that in which the official told the court in Sydney what he had heard unknown to the people engaged in conversation over the wires.
As to the beneficial side of this official listening, the Postmaster-general says it has resulted in the thwarting of the evil designs of a person who attempted to use a telephone to wreck the happiness of an affianced pair.
• The annual meeting of the Presbyterian Social Service Association was held in the Burns Hall, the Rev. A. Cameron presiding.
The President said some people got an impression that the work of the association was confined to children; but that was a mistake.
The association had a much larger sphere of labour than the care of children, though that was a very important work, and had been the most clamant, and had engaged the larger part of their attention.
Quite three-fourths of Mr Axelsen's time was given in looking after young people and in trying to prevent young lads and young girls from going astray.
They would see from the report the large number of young people who had been placed under Mr Axelsen's care, and that, with the exception of two cases, all who had come so near to embarking upon an evil course, and had appeared before the Juvenile Court, were doing well.
The association was doing work of the value of which the community had not the slightest conception.
They were preventing the community from being saddled with quite a number who might become criminals, and who, through the ministry of the association, were stopped in a downward career and placed under conditions which enabled them to recover themselves and become useful and valuable citizens.
Mr Axelsen had said every one of the lads who could go to the front had gone, or was preparing to go.
• Our London correspondent writes:- ''The campaign against the half-sovereign is in full swing, the argument being that, with the advent of the 10-shilling note, there is no longer any use for the coin, which wears away more rapidly than the sovereign. Mr Harold Cox, on this point, writes:- If the half-sovereign is withdrawn from circulation I hope that the public will be given an improved silver coinage as an optional alternative to paper notes. Professor Foxwell suggests the coining of crowns or five-shilling pieces, and he is absolutely right in his implied contention that, if we were to use silver more, we must have silver coins of a higher denomination than those now in current use. Previous experience, however, showed that the silver crown is so large as to be unpopular. I think that the highest denomination the public would accept is 4s, and I suggest that this coin could be popularised if, simultaneously with its introduction, the half-crown were abolished. Our silver coinage would then consist of 6d, 1s, 2s, and 4s, and the simplicity of this scale would greatly facilitate the extended use of silver.''
- ODT, 27.10.1915.
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