The Dunstan Times FRIDAY, 27th Sept. 1867.

Dunstan Times, Issue 283, 27 September 1867, Page 2

The Dunstan Times

FRIDAY, 27th Sept. 1867.

Beneath the rule of men entirely just, the vex is mightier than the sword! '

We perceive by the advertising columns of the "Daily Times" that .tenders are called, for the conveyance over all the Province of the Mails for 1868, with the exception of a few additional cross routes the Post Office authorities contemplate no increased postal communication j however if the intervals of interchanging our correspondence are to remain as heretofore, it is high time that the speed of the mails, when en route, should be accelerated. The improved' state of the roads, and increased facilities for coach traffic, surely is quite sufficient to permit the journey from Dunedin to Clyde being made in something less than two days, this should be insisted upon by the chief of the Postal Department, who most cer-

tainly must possess but very crude ideas upon coach travelling, to permit Her Majesty's Mails being dragged along at the Bullock dray pace they now travel between the Dunstan and Dunedin. During the summer months, for nine months out of the twelve at least, the journey could be made in something like sixteen hours, in Victoria it would be done in less, and with roads in a much worse condition for travelling than between this and the metropolis, via Waikouati. Since the Dunstan first became a Goldfield, we have not advanced one jot in speedy travelling, and if the Post Office authorities will only throw oft' for once their " old identity " notions, they will find the Mails can be conveyed to and from their respective destinations, at something like a respectable rate of speed. It is all very ifine to see in the evenings, the coaches from the Country come up at a hand galop, through the streets of Dunedin, towards the booking office, but that, as every traveller knows, is the best part of the journey, for when far away in the interior,' they lumber along with wearisome monotony. The rate of speed between Clyde and Queenstown might also be increased, especially, now that the main trunk road is opened throughout. A journey of fifty miles should not take twelve hours for a mail coach to perform. In all operations and undertakings connected with the goldfields great improvements have been made and we must not •suffer our means of locomotion to lag behind.