The Overseas Mails.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 16885, 13 July 1920, Page 6

The Overseas Mails.

The correspondent whose letter appeared in yesterday's issue spoke for a gocd many people when he expressed resentment at the irregularity of the existing overseas mail services. Ihiring tbe war the -whole community suffered in this respect, if not gladly, at least -with resignation, torn of the knowledge that the trouble arose from the disturbance caused by -war conditions, and of the confident belief that with the return of peace all would bo well once more. That confidence has proved to have been painfully misplaced. ' Tho system of despatching mails to New Zealand seems to be as disorganised as at any period in the -war. They still drop on us at any time in the niontia, almost unannounced. Some are conveyed by fairly fast routes, others by m*. undeniably slow ones, and there have 1

been signs that mails are allowed to accumulate in Vancouver for three weeks. The working of the Vancouver and 'Frisco raaib is indeed eccentric beyond understanding. One result of this is that letters posted in London on a certain date may not be delivered in Christchurch for a week or ten days after the receipt of letters posted a fortnight later. This naturally adds considerably to the worries of business arms, whose importations, particularly from the United States, not infrequently come to hand well in advance of the necessary documents. Time was, in the good old days, when we probably appreciatcd our advantages far less than we should have dono had we known what was to follow thorn, when the overseas mails reached Neiv Zealand with the regularity of clockwork. One knew then exactly what day in the week the Australian mail would be distributed, and weeks in front could calculate when the »an Francisco mail would arrive. The mails in those days camo not only regularly but consecutively—there were no blanks of a 'week or two to be filled up wihen the nest mail arrived. As a matter of fact it docs not greatly concern the mercantile community whether a London mail reaches here in five or in six weeks. A quick mail service is, of course, an advantage, but regularity is a much more important consideration. "With three mail services now, via San Francisco, Vancouver, and Panama, v/e ought to be better off than we were when we had one, and, later on, two, but as everyone knows, we are really much, worse off, and the fact that no tendency towards improvement is visible, excites wonder as to whether the Government are aware of the present disorganised state of the mail services, and of the annoying confusion arising therefrom. It is quite time that they awoke to the fact that New Zealand at the present time lacks one of the first requisites of a civilised community, a regular and efficient mail service, and that they took steps to provide it. What was available twenty years ago should not be unobtainable to-day.