THE HOKITIKA POST OFFICE.

Grey River Argus, Volume X, Issue 792, 9 February 1871, Page 2

THE HOKITIKA POST OFFICE.

(to the editor.) Sir — Would you permit me a small space in your paper to state a grievance that I have had to submit to on many occasions by the postal authorities at Hokitika, viz^ the . detention of -letters for weeks, directed for Greymouth, from Australia and elsewhere. 1 have stood it patiently hitherto, but a3 patience is not so abundant with me as to become a virtue, I have been compelled at length to appeal to you, to ask if there are no means of remedying this one great evil at Hokitika— of the Post Office employees' inattention to the public. I read a letter on Friday last directed legibly for me at Greymouth which arrived, at Hokitika on the 23rd of December, 1870, and was not forwarded to its destination until February 31st, 1871, making a deiention of five -weeks. It was a letter of the utmost importance to me, requiring an immediate reply, previous to the sender returning to Europe, but now rendered impossible, owing to this unwarrantable detention of my letter at Hokitika ; and this is not the first time by many, nor has this neglect of duty been the occurrence of yesterday, but, as far as 1 am concerned, date as far back as 1866, when a letter, sent to me from Victoria, directed Greymonth, and containing money, was detained at Hokitika so long after arrival that they were eithor afraid or ashamed to forward it to its destination, but returned it to the Dead Letter Office, Wellington, from whence, after a year's detention in the whole, it was returned to sender in Victoria. Is it not time, sir, that such conduct and gross neglect on the part of these Government employees, who are paid for doing certain duties, was looked into, and if these people will not perform the duties they are hired to do, let others take their places who will do it ? Trusting that I have not trespassed too much on your valuable time, I beg leave to nubscribe myself - Yours, &., • • Joseph Cowen. Maori Gully, Arnold, Feb. 5, 1871.