RURAL MAIL FEE.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 October 1921, Page 4

RURAL MAIL FEE.

The proposal made by the PostmasterGeneral to charge country settlers £2 per annum each for the delivering of their mail matter, which residents in the, more populated areas receive without charge, has aroused a storm of protest in country districts. The impost is regarded as another tax on farmers. The distribution of rural mails has no doubt been carried on at a loss in some localities, but the service, from a business point of view, must be judged as a whole, the revenue .derived from the towns and cities helping to pay for the less populated areas. If a delivery charge is to be made in addition to the postage, then it should be general. It is certainly not right to make fish of one and flesh of another. Besides this, rural dwellers have already quite as many disadvantages as they can put up with. Probably a large proportion of rural mail matter consists of circular and other unprofitable correspondence, the absence of which would be a relief, and it would be a distinct hardship to make the receivers pay for what they would sooner be without. In these days of motor vehicles the postal authorities ought to be able to deliver mails at fixed points in every district—say, the dairy factories —but to penalise country settlers to the tune of £2 a year is unreasonable s.nd impolitic. Surely the combined wisdom of the authorities can evolve a workable scheme without this imposition. If not they must be lamentably deficient in organisation.