PAPATOETOE POST OFFICE.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 293, 11 December 1929, Page 8

PAPATOETOE POST OFFICE.

IMPROVEMENT PROMISED.

GROWTH OF THE DISTRICT

The immediate improvement of the Papatoetoe Post Office "was promised by the Postmaster-General (Hon. J. B. Donald) to-day; in reply to a-deputation which met him at Papatoetoe.

The deputation was' led by the chairman of the Papatoetoe Town 'Board (Mr. T. R. Smytheman), Mr. H. C. Ernest (president of the Chamber of Commerce) and Mr. 'S. J.'E. : Closey (president of th'e.'Welfare League).

. Mr. A. W.Hall, M.P., for Haurakl, in, troduced the deputation, and Mr. F. M. Waters, chairman of the Manukau County Council, represented that body.

Mr. Smytheman said that 50 houses had been built at Papatoetoe since the Minister had made a visit earlier in the year:. ■ ■"•"

Mr. Ernest said that telephone improvements during the year included the erection of a box with direct communication with the city, also a continuous local, bureau. The post office building had been in use since 1914, and had never been adequate for the requirements of the district. He stressed the need of a public room for the postmaster and also the need of speeding up the bureau in the toll calls for Auckland.

Mr. Closey said that Papatoetoe'was the centre of a residential - area contiguous to an industrial area now being centred around Otahuhu. That industrial area was the largest in New Zealand.- It had, a pay-roll of £ 50,000 a week, and was situated entirely between Penrose and Mangcre. Extensions proposed for next year included the shifting of the Public Works buildings from Penrose southward, and this would be reflected in the growth of the residential area of Papatoetoe and adjoining districts. In reply to a question by the Minister, Mi 1 . Smytheman said that the organisations in the district supported the Town Board for a- new post office, but the question of a site was left to the Department. Mr. Waters supported the deputation, and pointed to development in Manukau County, close to Papatoetoe. Buildings were increasing in the Papatoetoe and Mangere ridings. , - Mr. Donald said he appreciated the growth of the district, but considered it would be a mistake to shift the office to a new site. He counselled a delay/of four or five years before making a decision on that point, and said that in the meantime the Department had approved plans for .enlarging the present office materially. A room would' be provided for the r>ostmaster. During the - afternoon the Minister visited East Tamaki and Wiri districts, and received deputations for improved postal facilities.