The Standard AND PEOPLES ADVOCATE. (PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SATURDAY.) WEDNESDAY, JULY 15, 1874.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume II, Issue 187, 15 July 1874, Page 2

The Standard AND PEOPLES ADVOCATE. (PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SATURDAY.)

WEDNESDAY, JULY 15, 1874.

“ We shall sell to no man justice or right: We shall dewy to no man justice or right: We shall defer to no man justice or right."

In reverting again, shortly, to the question of delivering mails on Sundays, under special and exceptional cireumRtanees, we trust we shall not be accused of giving the subject a prominence unwarranted by the facts as they have lately presented themselves to us. In a recent issue we undertook to express our opinion—the Post Office Regulations to the. contrary notwithstanding—that, under the special ci re□ Distances to which we shall presently aitnde, Postmasters in charge of such stations a* Gisborne now is, should be free- to elect to pay such a small concession to the urgent wants of the community as is involved in an occasional mail delivery on Sundays, when the detention of steamers is limited to those days'; and we repeat that opinion now, fort ified by a statement recently made in the, House of Representatives by the Honorable the Premier, in reply •to a question put to the Government by Mr. T. L. Shepherd as to the desirability ef having a fixed delivery of mails on Sundays. Mr. Vogel’s rfmly contains so much of public interest that we reprint it entire, the italics are our own:—

Up to May 31,1872, all mails arriving on Sundays were at once sorted, and, in the case of English mails, the Post Offices were open for delivery to the public for two hours. This' ■sxunpistyirv.attendance.ou. Sunday was foundto be a great hardship to many of the postal officorsi—pleverai hon. members: Hear.]— and by circular he (Mr. Vogel) decided that from the Ist January, 1873, all Post Offices should be strictly closed on Sunday, following a precedent adopted by other countries. Owing, however, to representations made by one or two chief postmasters that it would be impossible for them, in the event of English mails arriving on Sunday,4o forward all the correspondence for the country offices by the Monday morning mails unless such mails were sorted on Sunday, he altered the. previous decision, so far as to decide that Sunday attendance shouLl be optional- with the officers themsei res. It was also stated by the postmasters that many of the officers would prefer attending office on Sunday rather than be compelled to get out of bed at midnight, for the purpose of sorting for the Monday morning’s despatch. It was therefore decided, to allow those who w h-d, to attend on Sundays, and those who o attended yot overtime. It was also decided that no Postmaster should have the power to compel the attendance of any officer. At present, no mails were delivered late on Saturday night (except to private box-holders) mid except in the case of English mails, the PostOffices were not open to the general public on Sunday. English letters would, no doubt, be de l erred to the general public as well as to private bow-holders whenever mails from England arrived on Sunday. It had not been considered necessary to make arrangements for the delivery of mails arriving after office hours on Saturday. The requirements of the public were not such as to demand anything of the kind. It should be stated that the existing

arrangements are looked upon by the postal officers as satisfactory, more particularly with regard to the optional attendance. The General Post Office in Victoria was strictly dosed on Sunday (except so far as relates to the forwarding of a supplementary mail by the P. and O. steamer). It was believed this was the rule also in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Hobart. Town, and Launceston. There was a tendency in new countries to ask from Governments a great deal more accommodation than obtained in old countries. In justice to a Department, at once the hardest worked and worst, paid in the public service, it . was not desirable to moke any further alterations.

This, it will be seen, contains a direct solution of the present difficulty ; and supports our own. suggestion that it should be left entirely optional with the Post Office officials, to grant an occasional boon to the settlers, or not ;■ and our observations of the uniform courtesy displayed by officers in the eivil service, lead us to hope that that suggestion will not be made in vain.

We regret that Mr. Shepherd should not have made a colonial question of his motion. He wished that fixed arrangements should be made for Sunday mail delivery at the Chief Post Offices only. This narrows the subject too much, if, as we take if, the honorable gentleman meant the offices in the chief ports of the Provinces. The public interests in large ports are sufficiently protected by the rare occurrence of steamers leaving on Sunday, and the additional .one of

telegraphic communication. It is the outlying, unprotected, districts, like Poverty Bay, which require a little stretching of the law—districts that pay their quota both to mail subsidies and telegraphic expenditure, and get little but thread-bare phylacteries of either in return. Last Sunday was but a repetition of what occurred on the arrival of the Kangatira the Sundayprevious. The steamer arrived early in the morning, and laid in the Bay discharging cargo until the evening. An hour’s work would have delivered the letters ; and, besides the prospective benefit the trading community would have reaped, by the saving of a week’s unnecessary delay, much present chagrin would have been prevented. Of course, we do not lose

sight of the fact that the pertaissive element would leave a Postmaster free, to please himself before he obliged the publie; but we will not believe that any officer would, Jn full view and knowledge of a steamer leaving the same day as she arrives, refuse to open his office for an hour or two during her stay. Allowed that steamers do not depart until the Monday, such a sacrificial favor would not for a moment be sought after. As it is, jve lose the full benefit for which we pay; ’ and we hope the Government will take notice of it.