The Evening Mail. TUESDAY MARCH 5, 1878.

Oamaru Mail, Volume II, Issue 574, 5 March 1878, Page 2

The Evening Mail. TUESDAY MARCH 5, 1878.

Tile Wairaki to-day brought the Timaru portion of the Snez which nil! therefore reach its destination this evenThe public of Oatnaru will very naturally wane to know something abouttheir portion of the mail, which did not arrive per YvYiitnki with that for Timarn. From what we c;m glean the mail steamer in-rived at Port Chalmers ihis morning at 7 o'clock, and the Tiniaru letters were at ones transhipped to the Waitaki. because, beinjj for another Provincial District, they were made up in such :i manner as to be ready for transhipment. We. however, think it strange that there should be any difficulty in bestowing the sains favor upon Oamarn as upon T:nut.ru in this respect. If the Tinwru mails are wade up so that they can be got at and transhipped by the first' opportunity. why should not the same be done in the case or Oamavu ? If it is unnecessary to send the Timarn- letters toDunedin. we cannot see why our letters should be transported thither. We have

heard it stated that the staff at Port Chalmers is not sufficiently large to enable the post office authorities to extend to Oamaru that consideration of which Timaru lias been the recipient. But this is no valid excuse. Tiie mail arrives pretty regularly, ;u; T ' :' :tri»l>ly w hour or [so before the• departure of '' s '"'f-vn. Rather than perpetuate the absurdry of leaving Oamaru without her correspondence for a day after Timaru, nearly double the distance, receives hers, we would suggest that a sufficient- number of the Dunediu Post Oflice stall' should be sent to Port Chalmers to bj ready to sort, our letters and forward them by the first steamer. This would nut necessitate ati increased staff, or additional expenditure, as if the letturs v.-eve sorted in port they would not have to be sorted in Buuedin, and we won id by this arrangement be placed on a level with Timaru. Possibly it might be necessary to detain the steamer for a short time on certain occasions, which would entail expense ; but we are of opinion that even under such circumstances it is the duty of the postal authorities to treat us with that consideration which wo have a rig; it to expect in these days of advancement. To have our letters hawked to Duntdm, and sorted there, at the cost of a day's delay, and that unnecessarily, is scarcely good enough for Oamaru now-a-days. When the population was only hundreds instead of thousands the inconvenience and loss accruing from such delays were comparatively small, but in the altered circumstances of our town and district, we think wo have a right to ask the question, Why are wo not treated with the courtesy usually extended to districts of great import-since ? Post Oifice officials little know the evils of the delay of which we complain. As one

instance of this, we wyitld inform tliem that the sot tiers of the Upper Waitaki will nwv be compelled to wait another week for their letters, because, by the unnecessary delay, the weekly mail will be just missed. There is 110 reason why, if the Department manages its business with ordinary care and consideration, Oamnru should not receive her letters on the evening of the day on wliich the mail arrives at Port Chalmers; and we understood that, as a consequence of our having' pointed out the grievance in our columns last month, the Department intended to prevent a recurrence of the delay. Why it has not done so is what we want, in common with the people of this district, to know.