The Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, JUNE 28, 1877.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 151, 28 June 1877, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, JUNE 28, 1877.

The official notice that appeared yesterday morning to the effect that the San Francisco mail, previously announced to close on Mon- \ day, would be despatched three days earlier / naturally created no little alarm and annoyance among business men and others who intended sending letters by that route. In Wellington, Christchurch, or Dunedin such an intimation, even though it bore the Postmaster's signature, would have been regarded as a hoax, for the public there would have felt, perfectly sure that it was far more likely that some mischief-loving individual had ventured to commit forgery than that the Government would dare to tamper with the mail service in such a manner. In Nelson however this sense of security does not exist, and mail vagaries and Government breaches of promise are looked upon as matters of course. When they occur they are regarded as the will of Allah, to be accepted without question ; when they do not, we wonder what can be the matter, and congratulate ourselves upon our remarkable good luck. And so it was that the announcement that the English mail would, at twentyfoar hours notice, close three days earlier than had been advertised was accepted with something approaching resignation. It is true that during the day the Secretary relented, it having either voluntarily occurred to him or been pointed out by others that the liberty he proposed to take with the people of Nelson was a little too much for even them to put up with quietly, and so he telegraphed to state that arrangements had been made for carrying out the service as previously notified, but it is clear from what took place that the authorities are quite prepared to ignore the interests of Nelson whenever it may suit them to do so. It may not, perhapa, be generally known that while there is a contract for the conveyance of the outward mail from Dunedin via the East Coast to Auckland, correspondence from Marlborough, Nelson, West Coast, and Taranaki has to get to that port as it best can. There is a charming simplicity about the way iu which the matter is managed. Once a month the Union Steamship Company publishes a timetable, one of which is supposed to find its way to thePostoffice Secretary's desk. At his convenience he glances over it, notices that a steamer is advertised to leave Wellington for Onehunga via Nelson, a few days, perhaps a week, before the sailing of the mail steamer from Auckland, thinks that is near enough for such places as Nelson, Marlborough, West Coast, and Taranaki, and instructs the authorities here to forward the mails by that boat. Perhaps that Secretary reasons with himself thus:—" Those Nelson people have allowed themselves to be fooled so easily with regard to their railway extension and other matters that their members are not likely to make any fuss about so unimportant a matter as regular and reliable mail communication." We shall have an opportunity of seeing in the course of the next two or three months if he is right in the estimate he has formed of our representatives.