MAKURI DAY-LATE MAILS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1861, 22 September 1913, Page 5

MAKURI DAY-LATE MAILS.

Sir, —The . Postmaster-General,the Hon. R. Heaton Rhodes, iii reply,' to tho resolutions passed by the Dominion Conference, 'writes: —"I have tho honour to refer to your letter of the Ist instant, conveying' resolutions a3 wilder affecting this Department: "1. That subsidies for inland mail contracts should be for the Quick dispatch of mails, and that maila should, jn all cases, be sent to their destination without delay, and have priority over passenger traffic. "2.' That in country districts, post offices' lie not dosed for a half-day in the week as at present. 1 In lion of tlio weekly half-holiday, officials in charge bo given an extra fourteen days' holiday on full pay. "Resolution No. 1: A general review of the time-tables of inland mail services shows that the large majority of tho time-tables are framed so as to obtain the most expeditious delivery of mails possible. The circumstances of any particular service will, however, Lave consideration on being brought to the Department's notice. "Resolution No. 2 is being dealt with separately." 1 , Replies Letters, petitions, or deputations by the Post Office Department aro in very many cases evasivq and highly unsatisfactory—the reply quoted above is of this, nature; the following lines seem to apply:— . "That for ways that are dark And for tricks that are vain, The Now Zealand P.O. is peculiar." I moved tho remit in question on behalf of the Makuri branch of tho New Zealand Farmers' Union; it was carried by both tho Wellington and Dominion Conferences. It is a pleasure and consolation to know that our "day'late" mail service has been condemned by" farmers in conference from all parts of ithe Dominion.

Tho delayed servico was started by the late Postmastcr-Generil, who was not very long in .office —unfortunately long enough to tear up, a contract let bv Sir Jo3eph Ward, and which had given satisfaction to settlers) for over 20 .years. Under the old contract, mails \and passengers, both via Wairarapa and Manawatu, leaving Wellington about >3 ft.ra., arrived in Makuri at 5.30 p.m., Pongaroa soon after 9 p.m. . All this was changed, and instead of our coach leaving Pahiatua at 2.30 p.m. to-day it remains there until 10 a.m. to-morrow, arriving in Makuri at 12.30 p.m., and Pongaroa at 4.30 p.m. Tho present contract was only lot for twelve months and runs out in December. I think all settlors on this side of Puketoi will unite with me in asking tho PostmasferGeneral to give us back our old. service. It is tho only one which will give this district satisfaction.—l am, <&tc., • WM. J. MOORE. Makuri, September 18, 1913.