RURAL MAIL DELIVERY.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18239, 25 November 1924, Page 3

RURAL MAIL DELIVERY.

MEETING AT OHOKA. The agitation for a rural mail delivery in the Ohoka district has caused a feeling in the township itself that if the scheme comes into operation it may result in the Post Office at Ohoka being closed. At a meeting of some ; twenty- five to thirty householders, convened to discuss this aspect of the question, Mr Iv. 1. Downs was elected chairman. Mr C. M. AVilliams said that though the rural mail delivery would be most useful to liim and others ftt a distance from the Post Office, he would prefer to forgo that advantage rather than have the Post Office closed. The delivery of the letters was only one function of tho Poet Office, and the savings bank and money order branch was a. great boon to the residents. He considered that the closing of the office and the consequent forcing of the worldng-cla-ss portion of the community to pay £1 [>er vear for the delivery of their letters would be a gross injustice when their fellow-workers in the towns get letters delivered free. He 6tated _ also that, as far as he was concerned, its absence of locked boxes was a serious drawback to the rural mail delivery scheme. Mr A. W. Newton said that he had heard that evening from the Chief Postmaster at Christchurch that there was no' intention on tho part of the Department to close the Ohoka, Post Office, but that doubtless the remuneration to the postmistress Avould lie lessened when the work decreased. All that had happened so far was that a petition had been sent in signed by a sufficient number of residents on the combined route to satisfy the* Department that the proposal was a payable one, but that the scheme would not be l>ut ' into operation until the persons signing had paid their -first year's contributions. Thereafter they might drop out when they pleased, and if they did not pay in future years would be dropped by the Department, bur there was no risk of an increase of payment being demanded while a delivery contract was in force. On the motion of Mr C. M. "Williams, seconded by 31 r T. Harkness, it was resolved that a petition be forwarded to the Hon. D. Buddo, M.P., for presentation to the Postmaster-General embodying the following resolution: "That this meeting of Ohoka residents considers that whether a rural mail delivery be started or not, the Ohoka Post Office should be retained on its present status as a telephone office, savings bank, and money order office, with all its present facilities lor payment of pensions, receipts of land-tax, etc."