SPRINGSTON RURAL MAIL.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19317, 23 May 1928, Page 3

SPRINGSTON RURAL MAIL.

COMPLAINTS OF UNSATISFACTORY SERVICE. From a discussion which took glace at a meeting held in the Springston School on Monday night, at which arrangements were made for the school jubilee celebrations, it was apparent that the rural mail service which covers the major part of the Springs County is fir from satisfactory.- Some of the speakers declared that the district would be better off under the old system, when «people had to go to the Post Office for their mails. Mr J. W. Kime, who presided over the meeting, said that for a long time people had been complaining about the service, which had never been really satisfactory. The mailman seemed to have to time-table at all, -and boxholders were at a great disadvantage in not having even an approximate idea of the time at which he would reach their places. When tliete happened to be races on the mails sometimes arrived at tlhe place before .ten in the morning, but on other occasions the delivery was made at any time up to seven in the evening. The service .was nearly always very much later than it should be. On more than one occasion he had interviewed a former Chief Postmaster ,at Christchurch and was told that the mailman should finish his run every day by one in the afternoon. He often wondered whether the run was started much before one o'clock. The postal authorities had said that they could not keep a check as to the time of the mailman's return to Christchurch, but the speaker did not see why this could not be done. There was never any certainty that letters would reach Christchurch in time to catch the mails for the North Island on the day they were collected. It seemed to depend a good deal upon whether there were any rabbits to be shot or whether the car went through without mishap. It was high time that the Post and Telegraph Department took steps to see that the contract it had entered into with box-holders was carried out Messrs W. Lumber and S. Keast defended the mailman, stating that he had a run of over 120 miles to do even' day and that his car often gave trouble. Other speakers supported the chairman's remarks and urged that steps should be taken to ensure that the service ill the Springs County was as satisfactory as those run in other districts. The chairman intimated that he intended to wait upon the Chief Postmaster in Christchurch to-dav.