THE Lyttelton Times. Saturday, April 10.

Lyttelton Times, Volume IX, Issue 567, 10 April 1858, Page 4

THE Lyttelton Times. Saturday, April 10.

An advertisement calling* for tenders for the conveyance of mails, followed by a Proclamation of the Superintendent framing' the rates of postage, has given public notice of a very welcome extension of the communication by local posts throughout the province. The vote of the Provincial Council for local posts, viz., £400 for the next half-year, ought, together with the receipts of the office and the existingfacilities, to enable the Government to establish a very satisfactory state of local postage. * In reading- over the official notices above alluded to, it would appear that the authorities have very carefully considered thesubjeet, and on the whole we are inclined to agree with the arrangements proposed. In one direction, however, we could wish

"to see the_postaL service, further extended

The sooner we have a post running from north to south throughout the province the better for the interests of the whole community. But we cannot, of course, do everything at once. The Nelson Government have done nothing towards establishing an overland postal communication with that portion of their province which lies north of the Hurunui and south of the natural boundary between our country and theirs. Until they take some little trouble to connect Nelson with the Amuri district we cannot be expected to go to the expense of establishing a mail to the boundary of the province. When a mail is established from Nelson to the Hurunui,

it will be time enough to think about meeting it. We would urge upon Nelson the -importance of such communication, if not for the sake of the general interests of the middle island, at least for that of the Nelson land-office and the Amuri set-

tiers. Their present means of communication, viz., through the Lyttelton Post Office, is rather round-about.

"When we look to the south, however, we find, a different state of tiling's. The Ofcago Provincial Government have established a local post fortnightly between Dunedin and the Waitangi, as well as another from Dunedin to Invercargill. This is perhaps the most enterprising- thing ever done by the Otago Government. The postman from Dunedin to the Waitangi has carried the mails with extraordinary punctuality over a very bad road for upwards of a year. There is no reason why our post should not meet that of Otago on the frontier. We notice that the southern post is to stop short at Tirnaru, thereby destroying* more than half its usefulness. The Waitangi is only one day's journey from Timaru, and we do not think that the tenders would be very much higher for the extension of the service to the Waitangi, while the receipts would be more than doubled. It is true that Otago would benefit most by the connection, as the English mail would often reach that province overland via Lyttelton; but when Otago has done its part this' would be a very narrow view to take of the subject, especially as some of

the settlers on our side of the Waitangi often receive the benefit of the Otag-o post. We hope that a vote will be passed during1 the next session of the Council for such an extension. We should also have wished, to see a uniform postage charged for conveyance'of letters to all parts of the province. There is no just reason why Timaru should pay more for its letters than Akaroa. The penny post system has been found to work.satisfactorily at home. Why complicate the system of charges out liere?

To establish a postal system, however, between Christchurch and the Waitangi on a satisfactory basis, one or two further necessities must be provided for. As we are pressed for space we must refer to them in our next issue.