POSTAL GUIDES

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 264, 20 August 1936, Page 7

POSTAL GUIDES

COLONY’S SERVICES IN 1868.

INTERESTING COMPARISONS. A new edition of the Post and Telegraph Guide requires 327 pages to describe the wide range of the Department’s services, covering postal, money-order, savings-bank, radio communication, inland and overseas telegrams, and telephones. The literary contents are too highly compressed to be readable as a pastime, hut they are extremely informative, and what is more interesting to the general reader is a comparison between this Guide and. the first one issued by the Post Office in July, 1868. The infant Post Office of the Colony was able to include within a modest 35page Guide all its regulations, mail dates, the post offices of the country, and all the charges. To-day the much extended Guide has to be supplemented with other publications, including a complete directory to the air-mail services.

Auckland, according to tho list of 186*3, could only communicate by telegraph as far south as Kihjkihi—loo miles. There were only 40 telegraph offices altogether, and the South Island had a majority. Telegrams were charged according to distance, and the West Coast of the South Island must have been reached by a round-about route judging by the charge of 7d per word for messages from Dunedin to Hokitika, or 3£d to the same point from Wellington. Auckland had no telegraph outlets to these points. The charges for letters showed that Id was the rate for delivery of halfounce letters in the towns, <2d for what was called a “country” letter and 3d for inter-provincial communications. Overseas mails were carried for Bel the half-ounce to Australia and the United Kingdom (via Panama or Suez), but if the overland route from Marseilles was used, giving a saving of time of several days to England, the charge was lOd. It was possible in this early Guide to include full details of all the mail services within the colony, although this now requires a separate publication of Its own. Every postmaster, according to the Guide of 1868, was required to keep “a sufficient stock of postage labels,” for this was the official phrase for stamps. The original Guide found room within its 35 pages not only for a complete list of the Post Offices but of all the pillar-boxes in use, ten centres enjoying the latter facility. There was, of course, no mention of telephones, and the. Guido was always careful to'emphasise the fact that the telegraph is “electric.” The modern Guide is a complete ready-reference: for postal officials fo-day. They are required to make themselves familiar with the regulations, and the charges covering all classes of business, and herein they find answers to the questions put by the Department’s customers who can, however, buy the Guide and look up the facts for themselves.