Manawatu Herald. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1880. THE WELLINGTON-FOXTON MAIL SERVICE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue 15, 22 October 1880, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1880. THE WELLINGTON-FOXTON MAIL SERVICE.

" We understand that the tender of Wr James Macarahas boon accepted for the conveyance of mails between Wellington and Uoxtou. The servico is to be tri-weekly. The new arrangement commences on the Ist December." The above extract from the Evening Post of Tuesday, though short, is of great interest to the people of these districts, The da.ly mail service is abandoned, and from the firofc of December we must content ourselves with a tri-weeldy overland mail, and such other mails as fortune may send us per steamer, from Wellington. It is very hard to " grin and bear " this kind of thing, as, try what one will to repress it, there rises in one's mind the impression that as a district we are being, to use a vulg-ar phrase. tl sat upon." The object of this action is to retrench. But why is retrenchment necessary ? Simply becaus3 the country has now to pay interest on tho construction of unrepruduetivo railway lines, which have swallowed up large portions of the colonial loans, and now drain the colony for interest. And here is wheie the hardship comes in. 'Chose places which ha\e obtained the ex penditure on railways have secured to themselves a daily mail. The Wairarapa district, Decauso it is connected with Wellington by a railway, will have its daily mail — perdaps twice a day — whereas the Mauawatu district lias not only no railway to Wellington, but is robbed of its daily mail to assist in making up the interest due to the English moneylenders upon loans spent in such works as tho Taranaki railway, which has returned 23s per month towards interest since it was begun, or the Shag Point railway, which earns about £20 per month, at a cost of about £50. Surely common sense points out that those parts of the country which, iv the distribution of the loans, have received least, should suffer the least from the retrenchment necessary to pay the interest. The action of the Government appears to be based upon the idea that he who is poor can do with less, and from this district, which hath not, is being taken away even that it hath.