LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 126, 21 February 1919, Page 6

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

A COMPLAINT FROM APITI THE POSTAL SERVICE. Sir,—Kindly allow nie a little space to ventilate what appears to me a. scandalons callousness to the needs of backblock settlers. I am one of tho unfortunate inhabitants of ill-fated Apiti, 30 miles from the nearest railway, cliouiist, and doctor. \V • have a direct mqtor service with Feilii.ng. The car leaves'Feilcling at 3.30 p.m. and arrives here at 5.30 p.m. Permission to have an evening delivery of mail has been refused. We cannot 'get a parcel from Feilding on tho day it arrives. Suppose, Sir, I am taken ill' on Saturdays and I 'phone for the required medicine, it arrives here at 5.30 p.m., on Saturday, but delivery is refused till fl a.m. on Monday, but by this time it is too late.. Will you kindly tell me who has assisted me to my 'grave? If you have over heard of a more ridiculous arrangement and a more callous n»glect of the backblocks I should like you to let mo know, for it may appease our grievance somewhat. Wo are put to no end. of inconvenience, holding public meetings, sending deputations to Wellington, and pulling strings here and there to get our one mail on the day it arrives. Sir, is it any wonder that the population of Apiti is decreasing, and peoplo are' flocking to Feilding, preferring to live there rather than die of Departmental neglect in A P iti?-I am,,t., BLposT _ [We submitted the above complaint to the Chief Postmaster's Department, in ordor to ascertain if it is possible to meet the wishes of those concerned in the matter. The effect of the official reply is that Apiti-is considered to bo provided at present with a really admirable service. Indeed it is stated to be the service the residents themselves asked for Inst vear, and were said to have been dengueed to get. Formerly the service only wont as far as Kimbolton, and returned to Apiti at about 4 p.m. ?\ow Apiti has a through service from Feilding, which enables Apiti people to go in the mominj to Feilding, do all their business, and return to Apiti by 5.45 p.m. this service, it is stated, enabled the mails from tho South Island, -Wellington, and also from New Plymouth to arrive in Apiti before G p.in. The request for an evening delivery, it is held, is not reasonable, -and it is pointed out by Jie Department that in no town outside the - four centres are deliveries made across the counter after, a p.m.;\but ont payment of ail annual fee of 10s. per year a private box may be secured, and letters are sorted into these; boxes the same night. To make deliveries over the counter after hours (5 p.m.) » pla.ces, sueh as Apiti, the Department-states, would cost tlie country an enormous sum of money, and the advantages secured were not really worth it. The revenue obtained from Apiti, it is stated, already falls n lot short of the expenditure, which, of course, has to be borne by the people. Considering its sizo and loca--1 tion, Apiti is claimed to be one of the ) '< "best served towns in the Dominion.!