MAIL DISTRIBUTION IS A PROBLEM FOR THE POST OFFICE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 74, 6 April 1949, Page 5

MAIL DISTRIBUTION IS A PROBLEM FOR THE POST OFFICE

By posting mail at the correct times at Whakatane it is almost possible to have a letter sent to any part of the North Island within 24 hours and, in some cases, a reply may be received in just about the same time. But this can be done only when mail is posted before the different closing times. By using the different routes and transport services out of Whakatane the post office has mail coming in and going out at all hours of the day, every day of the week.

Bus, Train & Car Mail to Whakatane comes in by bus, rail and the early morning paper car. Arriving at the post office it is sorted for distribution. .The outward mail goes forward by the same, means and the sorting staff work at top speed at the closing times, which are usually from half an hour to an hour before mail is due to depart on the various services.

First class services are provided between Whakatane and Wellington and Auckland. There is a direct service to Auckland every day and one to Wellington. For other districts south of Frankton Junction such as Taranaki, Wanganui and part of Hawke’s Bay the mail is resorted again at Frankton and sent south by the Auckland-Wellington express or as it is, twice a week by the Auck-land-New Plymouth express.

The mails for the different smaller areas are despatched first to • the main centres and then distributed from there.

No Air Service A handicap for Whakatane is the non-existent air mail service. The nearest are at Gisborne, Rotorua and Tauranga which, at the present time, are not used. To send mail by air south of Auckland from Whakatane it is sent first by the ordinary service to Auckland where it is then placed on the various planes. It is of no advantage to send by a|r to Auckland, first, ’ because there is no such service and secondly, because the ordinary surface service is as good as any possible air run.

In some cases the service to Auckland maybe missed, so a letter from Whakatane can then be sent through to Gisborne to catch a plane south from there.

Despite the comparative isolation of Whakatane to the rest of New Zealand the post office has managed to inaugurate their services to handle mail under the available conditions. At a glance some of the routes to different centres appeared round about, but a close examination reveals why they are used. For example. If a letter is posted at Whakatane for Tauranga it is sent away by the Auckland service car. It is taken off at Frankton Junction and then brought back to Tauranga the next morning by train and is delivered the same day. Apart from the express three times a week, and a goods train there is no direct service to Tauranga. Again, the mail to go on trains must be posted by 7 a.m. so that the via Frankton to Tauranga is the best, at present.

Rural Delivery Being a large and scattered area the Eastern Bay of Plenty presents rather a problem for mail distribution, to the post office. Places on main routed it is not' so difficult to reach, but to the farmers and the small village in the outback daily delivery is sometimes the only tangible link with the rest of the world. It is for this reason that the daily rural delivery service was brought into being by the post office. Although box holders on the service pay a fee each year this does not cover anywhere near the total cost. It is the ordinary taxpayer who pays for most of the service. But it is worth it and the service itself is highly valued by those who have to use it.

Six days a week rural delivery goes forth. Beside a daily mail service it is used for the delivery of daily papers and also by the isola + - ed farmer to have provisions and other goods brought from town. The service operating from Whakatane is one of the largest in the country and the vans cover' about 600 miles a day, and they are going all day. The highly organised mail delivery system of the post office. is designed to reach any part of the country and indeed, the world, in the shortest possible time. To the ordinary person it sometimes looks an outdated clumsy system. But take a closer glance, it isn’t really.