The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. SATURDAY, JANUARY 26, 1889. DEFECTIVE MAIL ARRANGEMENTS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2047, 26 January 1889, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. SATURDAY, JANUARY 26, 1889. DEFECTIVE MAIL ARRANGEMENTS.

The new mall arrangements for the Lismore, Mayfield, and Ruapuna Post Offices m ibis county are very unsatisfactory and annoying to the residents m those districts, and alterations aro urgently needed m the time table, even if I the days on which the mail is now carried are kept to. The new contract, which commenced on the Ist of January this year, arranges for the mail to leave the Hinds Bail way Station on the I mornings of Tuesday and Friday, before j the arrival of either north or south train there. The mails are carried to Lismore, Mayfield, and Ruapnna, and the return Tffstlinare carried vice versa, the mailman not arriving at Hinds on his return journey until after the departure of the evening train for Timaru and the express for Obristchurch. Hence supposing a letter is posted by the express from Ghristchurch on Monday morning it reaches Lismore or Mayfield on Thurs day, and if answered by the return mail at once on that day it is forwarded on to the Hinds, but reaches there after the trains and mails have gone, so cannot be forwarded until the following day, and is* delivered m Christchurch on Saturday morning, a reply being thus received on the sixth day after despatch of a letter. The distance is about 70 miles m all to Lismore, of which 60 miles are by express train, the other 10 by mail carrier. Surely better time was made than this m the old days before the advent of the railways, when Gobb and Co. did the mail carrying with coach and horses. The old arrangement, by which the mails were carried to Lismore from Hinds and back, and from Valetta to Mayfield, Ruapuna, and back, suited the residents fairly well, and should not have been interfered with, we think, unless other satisfactory contracts had been entered into, which is not by any means the case now* Another trouble at Lismore is the want of someone to conduct the post office there m a regular way. At present the schoolmaster has charge of £he mails, but he being a bachelor, and the holidays now on, hag left the school and post office for a time, and m consequence there is no one to deliver or make up the mails during his absence, this being of course a great annoyance to the residents m the locality. This 13 a matter m which the good offices of the members for L< angitata and Ashburton should at once be solicited, and we feel sure that both Mr Buxton and Mr will be glad to use their best endeavours t.p obtain a remedy for what is undoubtedly a very serious grievance.