CARRYING THE MAILS

Evening Star, Issue 22444, 15 September 1936, Page 7

CARRYING THE MAILS

1,500 SERVICES, USED T!he post office is engaged in the work of re-letting : mail-service conti act* over the large artea covering the southern half of the North Island; The mail services necessary to deal with the department’s, immense ' postal business number over 1,500, and these include 706 contract services of _ the type now being renewed. This side of the department’s business is so extensive that the contracts for the whole Dominion are separated into_ three groups enabling one to be dealt with each year. The licensing system, of regulating road transport and eliminating excessive and uneconomic , competition has created a transition stage.in connection with inland mail; contract services. One definite condition of ,a-post office contract is that the operator must hold a license to carry passengers or goods, which includes mails., The old unregulated competition having disap>peared, the post office is safeguarded against excessive charges for mail carriage by the Licensing Authorities’ control over the operators tariff, and also the department’s long experience pf the conditions on the various routes, 'which, enables it to ascertain for itself a fair basis of payment for the jservice given. Each service has to be 'considered on its own merits, and" such factors as density of population, the general goods traffic available, and the length of the route are all taken into consideration.