The Taihape Daily Times TUESDAY, JULY 6, 1915. TAIHAPE HINTERLAND MAILS.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 245, 6 July 1915, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times

TUESDAY, JULY 6, 1915. TAIHAPE HINTERLAND MAILS.

AND WAIMAEINO ADVOCATE.

(With which is incorporated The Taihape Post ana Walmarino News.)

About the middle of May, settlers in the various outlying areas held a meeting in connection with improvement of mail services; a change made necessary by the alteration in the developmnt of the whole territory. Settlements that were at one time considered, and undoubtedly were, the chief and most convenient places to transact business in, have progressed very little in comparison with others that at that time did not count. Now, these old gathering places are no longer useful as store and marketing centres; they have hud fo be abandoned for others tha't have now become small cities when campared with what they originally were. Farmers have had to move with the times. Taihape has outdistanced every place | along the line; large stock sales are held periodically, and buyers come from a radius of a hundred miles at least to attend them. Large business houses have come into existence, and all other modern convcniencs and requirements for settlers on the laud have been established, so that for vey many miles around farmers and settlers arc compelled to make Taihape their source of all supplies, and they find it the only place in which they can profitably market them produce . As evidence of this nothing further is required than to mention the fact That they have put their hands into their pockets to the extent cf about £50,000 to erect freezing wo "Its here so ns to further suit their coin ehnencc and pro fit. The.settler is exhibiting no mean 1 spirit in the settlement and png.-ess o* this district, which has proved one if the best fattening localities in New , Zealand, teo much tTm we venture to say that it*will turn off move fats than eoiMe localities that arc e-amble -of watering from five to eight sheep to the aevo. Bultiow'is the Govor-meat treating. these same settlers? They mad# mail wrangenioats yours age. and years ago theee .arrangements could l.?con altered to the changed ci.vctim-

stances. Efforts aa*been made to get readjustments that would have been more in accordant’; with the back districts' needs, but the deaf yen’- -the ear that will oftimes remain deaf unless some groat pressure can be brought to bear —has been turned to all prayers up to the present. A very large gathering of settlers at Taoroa asked

the Government for what was nothing more than a necessity',, but what has the Government done? The Minister stands by and pretends to listen to what are nothing short of pressing needs and tells these men, some of whom have spent a lifgtime in the backblocks, that ho will consider what has been said, but all he remembers is that telephone connection with Taihape is needed, and to give this he looks for the cheapest and nastiest way of doing it. utterly' re gardless of convenience and practicability. We understand that Mr. Law has just received an intimation that after a month’s consideration of the almost costless arrangements asked for, the Department is going *.r spend a fabulous sum in giving a very questionable benefit, it'has decided to connenp G e TJtiku post i dice with the T;tiku railway station. The SJtiku ps’ office is open from 9 to 5, and t is needless for us to say that it is after the closing hour that the settlors would more often require to make use r.f the telephone for business and other purposes. We have no hesitation in saying that the Department either cannot have looked into the merits of vhat the setlers have asked for, or they are treating the subject with the meanest parsimony'. We trust, however, that the Doparment has not yet shelved the proposed rearrangement of mails that w'ould be productive of almost incalculable benefit while only needing the additional annual expenditure of an amount not . worth considering.