The Southland Times. TUESDAY, JANUARY 30, 1872.

Southland Times, Issue 1531, 30 January 1872, Page 2

The Southland Times. TUESDAY, JANUARY 30, 1872.

The mail service between Queenatown and Invercargill, although, nominally increased, has in realitj been suspended. It appears that despite the best exertions of the Municipal Council of Queenstown, the Invercargill Chamber of Commerce, and the joint action of the Press of both places, the post office authorities cannot be made to understand that any real distinction exists between Kingston and Queenstown, and that correspondence addressed to the one has not reached its destination when it gets to the other. They cannot be made to comprehend the fact" that these two places are separate and distinct, even although informed that they are situated 30 or 40 miles apart. Considering they cannot be made to realise a proposition so clearly demonstrated that even the meanest capacity would grasp it at a moment's notice, no one will expect them to understand that the configuration of the intervening country is of such a nature that it is difficult, or rather impossible, to travel it unless by navigating the lake. The result is as has been stated so often, they have failed to make provision for the service going further than Kingston. The consequence is the upward mail remains there while the downward mail gets no further than Queenstown. The steam boat proprietors have offered to do the lake part of the communication, two trips per week, for £150 per annum. Considering the expense of labor on the goldfields, that sum must be looked upon as surprisingly moderate. One offer after another has been made, and the public interested in the service have time after time urged, their acceptance. It was shown by the Invercargill Chamber of Commerce that the reduced rate at which the coaching part of the work was done this year -would all but compensate the postal department for the steam-boat subsidy, but it was all of no avail. They did not seem to be capable of realising the facts of the case, hence matters were left to take their course. To bring the question to an issue one way or another, the steam-boat company have refused to continue carrying the mails gratuitously, and the result is as mentioned- above — a complete interruption to the service. There the matter stands for the present, and in the meantime we are told the mail bags are being stored in Kingston at the risk of whom it may concern. Although the postal service is a General Government department, in pursuance of an arrangement made with the Government of the late province, the steamer's subsidy was defrayed by the province. In reunion it would appear that this arrangement has been repudiated, so that without attempting to paliate the blame attached to the post offi-.-e authorities, we state unhesitatingly that this is another of the evils by which the place is afflicted through reunion.