MEDIEVAL MAIL CARRIAGE.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 9, Issue 572, 5 October 1920, Page 2

MEDIEVAL MAIL CARRIAGE.

Soldiers of the British dominions used to laugh with derision at the spectacle commonly seen in the French villages of a little donkey, not much bigger than a Newfoundland dog, drawing a big heavily-laden cart along the street, with the owner sitting on top of the load, seemingly unconscious of the diggers' rather luud hints to him, in more or less —generally less—fluent French, lo "get off and push."' but one docs not require to go to the quaint und ancient villages of the Old World to sec medieval customs still in vogue Here in Pukckohc we have a mossgrown inail-carriage service which is surely a most anomalous possession for a Department which prides itself on its modernity and efficiency, and chief officers of which have been known lo visit other parts of our Empire, and also the United States, and come back expressing the smu;:. self-complacent opinion that they had vtrj little to learn from abroad. Lievcral time, each day mere boys may be seen carrying heavy sacks of mail on their backs over the rather lengthy distance between the post office and railway station, or pushing . ••' pilcd-up handcart, to and fro with i bag* and hampers of mail. There are several carriers in business in i Pukekohc, but the Postal Depart ment dots not seem to know that they exist. One would think that; the letting of a mail-carriage contract t<> a carrier, or the supply of a mail van would not only be'inure humane, but also more efficient and less costly than the present obsolete system that necessitates a number ol boys being overworked, and who constitute peripatetic bad advertisement:- of the methods obtaining in Pllkckohe. People travelling in the trains can tee practically nothing of Pukekohc-, and the sight of our primitive mail-carriage service must give them the impression that Pukekohe is a "one-burse show" indeed, For the credit of the town, if for no other reasons, the Borough Council and Chamber of Commerce might well take this matter in hand.