RURAL MAIL DELIVERY

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXX, Issue 5473, 11 September 1929, Page 2

RURAL MAIL DELIVERY

A PROPOSED SERVICE.

SUGGESTION FOR NGATEA. A movement is afoot in the Waitakaruru district to secure a rural mail delivery service, and a petition to the Postal Department is now being circulated amongst the settlers of the Pipiroa and Canal roads. In arranging such a service the department to get a circuitous route, and only in exceptional circumstances does it agree to the establishment of a rural delivery if the carrier would have to retrace his steps over the same road twice in the same day. A minimum of four boxes per mile is required if the route is to be less than ten miles, but if it is over ten miles at least three boxes per mile is sufficient. The cost of a daily delivery is £1 a year, and settlers are required to provide a proper box, costing 8s or 1,25, according to the size required. The movement of the Waitakaruru settlers suggests the advisability of a rural mail delivery for the whole of the area between Ngatea and Waitakaruru, including the Hopai, Rarerawe, and Pipiroa roads. Its advantage is manifest, and there should be no difficulty in its establishment if ,some interested person would take up the matter.

At present the bulk of the mail arrives in Ngatea &y the Paeroa service car at about 3.30 p.m., though a letter mail, comprising only those, letters which are posted in Auckland between the times of the departure of the morning mail and the 2 p.m. service car, arrives about 6 p.m. The afternoon service car also brings a similar letter mail for Waitakaruru, but the main mail stays in Ngatea or Thames over night and reaches Waitakaruru late in the morning. The postmaster at Ngatea advises that it is possible, if a rural mail were started, that the delivery might be made in the afternoon after' the arrival of the mail through Paeroa, but it is more likely that it would be in the morning. In the case of the Waitakaruru district settlers, the morning delivery would mean that mail matter would be delivered earlier or at 'about the same time as the mail now reaches the post office. As there are no private letter-boxes at Waitakaruru, settlers cannot receive delivery of letters which arrive by the afternoon service car until the post office opens at 9 a.m., so a few hours’ delay only in this class of mail would be occasioned by utilising a rural delivery service. Rural mail delivery carriers collect letters for posting from letter-boxes, and settlers find that there are other services which they can sometimes be induced to perform. The establishment of a service from Ngatea to Waitakaruru should be easier to obtain than a shorter service from one or both of the offices, which would entail securing four subscribers to the mile instead of three for the longer run. The matter is commended for favourable consideration by the Ngatea-Waitakaruru settlers.