CHIEF POST OFFICE DENIED HASTINGS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 51, 16 March 1937, Page 4

CHIEF POST OFFICE DENIED HASTINGS

Minister Declines Business* men's Request EXPEDITING DELIVERIES That the creatiou or a chief post office at Hastings would be both unnecessary and uneconomical because of the proximity of Hastings to Napier was the reason goven by the Postmas-ter-General, the Hon. F. Jones, in his reply to Mr E. L. Cullen, M.P. for Hawke's Bay, xegarding the desire of the Hastings Chamber of Commerce that Hastings be made a chief post office. The letter was received by the Chamber at its meetins last evening, when it was referred back to the committee in charge of the matter, it being felt that there was ground for further inqurry into the expediting of Hastings mail deliveries for Pakowhai and Twyford. "Each of the 18 ciiief post offices in the Dominion is the head office of an extensive postal district," tsaid the letter, "and in view of the proximity of Hastings to Napier the creatiou of another postal district within the present Napier district would be both unnecessary and uneconomical. "That Hastings is not a chief post o'ffioe had no bearing o'n the arrangements made for mail connections-with adjacent areas, or for the clearance of customs pareels addressed to Hastings The greater portion of the rural area between Hastings and Napier is served by the Napier-Fernhill mail delivery. Correspondence for Twyford, Fernhill and Pakowhai posted at Hastings throughout the day reaches Napier the same evening and is delivered the following morning. In the xeturn direction correspondence collected at these places on the morning delivery reaches Hastings at 12.40 p.m., in time to connect with the afternoon delivery by postmen. There is also a direct daily mail in each direction between Hastings and Fernhill and, in the circumstances, the areas in question are reasonably well served." There was no delay in notifying addressees of the arrival of overseas pareels, it was further pointed out, and all pareels were transferred from Napier to Hastings immediately they had been cleared by the customs officer. "As you are probably aware," Mr Jones concluded, "the principal business firms in Hastings have customs agents at Napier to expedite the clearance of dutiable pareels. It is regrettable that favourable consideration eannot be given to the request." Members of the chamber, while quite content not to press further in the matter of a chief post office, felt that a revision of the existing delivery service should be made to enable letters posted in Hastings to be delivered at places four or five miles distant the same day, instead of these being sent via Napier and Teaching their destination the following day.