THE Pukekohe and Waiuku Times PUBLISHED TUESDAYS AND FRIDAYS FRIDAY, NOVEMBER, 20, 1914 POSTAL SHORTCOMINGS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 3, Issue 249, 20 November 1914, Page 2

THE Pukekohe and Waiuku Times PUBLISHED TUESDAYS AND FRIDAYS FRIDAY, NOVEMBER, 20, 1914

POSTAL SHORTCOMINGS.

" HV nothing extenuate, nor net doun auaht in malice. 1 '

Povr_\L meters in the Pukekohe district fall surprisingly short of the facilities already enjoyed in otlier progressive parts of NewZealand and it is quite time that tho Postal Department should be asked to remedy existing shortcomings and to locally institute methods of reform and improvement in k?oning with the requirements of the present day. We particularly refer to tho Department's neglect to provide for the benefit of the settlers of this district the .system of Rural Mail Delivery, which wherever adopted has been one of the most popular features of post office administration ' yot carried out. By tho system referred to, wherever the population warrants it, a line of route for tho delivery and collection of letters is selected and a contract is lot accordingly. Along the line of route specially constructed boxes are erected, namely at the gate of each settler or if such settler is not a resident ou tho line of route at any poiut oa the road beit suited to hitu On each box is painted the name of the sottler concerned, the boxc3 being supplied by the Department at a charge to the settler of 9s each, and iu such receptacle the contracting letter-carrier drops correspondence and at the same time collects therefrom letters awaiting postage. In some instances the bringing into force of the Rural Mnil Delivery is made conditional ou a comparatively small subiidy being guarantee I by the settlers as a body to augment the sum that the Department is prepared to allocate for the contract, the Department's expenditure thereon being guided by the amount of business being done as revealed by a tally of letters already going to the districts concerned. Iu the case of the settlements around Pukekohe it

is probable that no subsidy would he called for since the volume of business is already large. A mail coacli now runs daily to and from Pukekohe and Waiuku via Patumahoe and Mauku and we would suggest that the Rural Mail Delivery should as a start be put into operation on that route. Iu that pellicular instance probably a clause, as is usually the case in such contracts, already exists iu tho contract for the delivery of letters to be made iu boxes where erected, the contract generally providing for an additional payment to the contractor of os per annum for each box erected, the settler on his part ouly paying 9s in respect of the original cost of the box.

Copies of the official forms of application hy .settlers for Rural Mail Delivery are available for signature at the " Tiiucj " Office and interested parties are invited to co-operato in the movement.

In Pukekohe itself we consider au improvement should bo etlected by the installation in the Post Office ol acetylene gas lighting instead of the I iiirrenl primitive mode of illumin.ilion !'\ oil lauip- With very few exceptions the Immuh-js establish-

ments are in possession of the former

system of lighting, and it is some what ludicrous for a Government building of such importance as a post office not to be similarly up-to-date, the Private Letter Box compartment being conspicuously dismal at night-time in the dim light shed from the rays of a solitary candle lamp.