The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 1878.

Kumara Times, Issue 412, 21 January 1878, Page 2

The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 1878.

The mails from Christchurch, including latest dates from, the Australian colonies, were in the Hokitika Post j Office at 11.30 p.m. on Friday, and were not delivered in Kumara until j this forenoon, sixty hours afterwards. We are fully and painfully aware that the business of Government departments is not conducted upon thoße principles of common sense which apply to ordinary commercial pursuits; but, even after making due allowance for official incompetence and traditionary circumlocution, we fail to see that two days and a-half are required to transport a few bags of mails a distance; of twenty miles. The exertion necessary to have sorted out the Kumara portion of the mail between 11.30 p.m. on Friday and 9 a. m. on Saturday (the hour at which the coach leaves) is perhaps more than could reasonably be expected of Hokitika Post-office clerks j but surely the Postmaster has power in such cases either to. detain the coach or to charter another. Somehow or other they manage those things better in the Greymouth office; and we venture to say that had these mails been landed at the latter place, there would have been no occasion to make ; this complaint. Should the same thing occur again, possibly a petition to the Postmaster-General might have the effect of electrifying his subordinates into a display of at least ordinary activity. It might not be compatible with their ideas of official dignity, nor in keeping with that "calm repose" Which, we have it on the authority of Thomas Moore, is a marked characteristic of the aristocracy, but the convenience to" the public would be immense ; •and, we take it, Post-office clerks are anade for the public—not the public for them.