A LAME-DUCK POSTAL DEPARTMENT.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1153, 14 June 1911, Page 5

A LAME-DUCK POSTAL DEPARTMENT.

Sir—Regarding your report of the Farmers' Union C'ontereuee held in V> oodvine, i do not consider you gave mo sufficient! space with regard to the remit I had the honour to propose with regard to rural delivery. Tnere is a question ot great importance to country settlers, and when mail contractors put in prices at cut rates it is the duty .of the Department to accept their price and not act ui so parsimonious a manner as we were treated in "Maknri Coonoor" contract. Ihe JJep»rtment on our petition called alternate tenders for rural and closed delivery, ino cost of rural delivery was some .«> more than closed delivery, and was also considerably less than they paid oil the last contract's. Yet the authorities were not satisfied and accepted the old-fashioned worm-eaten conditions. Why? Because thev would lose a few pounds paid for private hags. I understand the Department makes so mo fifteen or twenty thousand pounds per annum out. of private has" and thev are the blocks to postal reform. Private bags cost £2 per annum, and we object in the strongest possiblo manner to settlers paying the san* price for a bi-weekly delivery as they dci tor a daily. Then comes the question: \\nj should the pioneers be asked ;o subsidise their mails when city peop e get them free' To illustrate how much these deal old gentlemen in their easy chairs arc behind the times, we get our daily papers delivered at our doors three times a \.eek and at the same price as you people pay in the towns. With newspapers there is competition and fney I,a \ o to get out and about to push their busne" v.-hi!o the dear old official sits back er- to^«^«TTC, j!rs ally Agriculture, where the nfficcrj ull meet the wishes of country_sctt. ersi. tliej Tssblv can. Why the Post Office, Department should be the "lame (lucks in th?"«vic.e and waddle behind other more modern Departments is n m^ crs o - I c jJ™ not ur rr 'n fr i'ho claim of onl ; tract It should apply to all country districts in the Domimon.-I am, etc WM. J. MOORE. Makuri. June 4.