THE WELLINGTON- FOXTON MAIL SERVICE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue 17, 29 October 1880, Page 2

THE WELLINGTON- FOXTON MAIL SERVICE.

♦ ' ■ , It is rumoured the Government intend, to. compensate thia district for the loss of the daily Wellington-Fox-ton mail, by sending a mail via Masterton three times per week, on alternate days to tnose upon Which the Foxton mail will be carried, and one; or two of our contemporaries have been led away with the idea that because the mail would leave Wellington every day, therefore the new arrangement would be equal to a daily mail. A little closer inspection will show the fallacy of this, also that such a scheme would prove • cumbrous, and would cost nearly as much as the present daily mail service. At present, the mail coach leaves Masterton shortly after three o'clock, aud travels the same night as far as Eke tahuna, a distance of 25 miles. Thefollowing day the remaining journey to Palmerston is done, an early start being made with the view of catching the Kopua train on the Napier line. Palmerston is reached during the afternoon. Fromthe Public Works Maps we gather that the distance from Masterton to Woodville is about 50 miles, and from Woodville to Palmerston about 15, making a journey of 65 miles. Now the question is, will the Government be able to devise any scheme by which a letter posted say at Wellington on Monday evening will reach Palmerston by six o'clock on Tuesday night, in time to catch the Wanganui train ? To accomplish this the letter will require to travel over 71 miles of rail, and be coached 65 miles ; and witb all due lespect for the powers that be, we mean to say they will neverjdo the work in the time mentioned. The journey to Masterton will take at least five hours, and as the train starts at 7 a.m., it. would be about 1 p.m. before the coach started upon its journey of 65 miles. We need hardly say it would not reach Palmerston before ten o'clock at night. If the mail were sent up to Masterton the previous mght,it would need to close early in the afternoon, and it would ueed a stretch of imagination to call it a daily mail if that were done. The real fact is that no arrangement such as that proposed by the Government can possibly be satisfactory. The advantage of the present arrangement is that letters can be answered both in Wellingtou and throughout the whole Manawatu district the same day as they are re • ceived. The proposal of the Government is in no sense a substitute for this, and we had better face the unpleasant fact that a tri-weekly mail, and that only, will be all the communication the West Coast districts will have with Wellington.