SOUTH CANTERBURY MAILS

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17294, 4 November 1921, Page 10

SOUTH CANTERBURY MAILS

10 THE EDITOB OF "THE PEES 3." Sir, —Owing to my mail fromGhristchurch including my Tuesday's copy of "The Press," having to wait in Timaru for a day, as a result of the Government's- system of not connecting their mail delivery in South Canterbury up with the express, I could not reply before, this to M. J. Doyle. Let me say first you have certainly given M. J. Doyle and the local buster another valuable advertisement, .. for which'l suspect he did not pay, ana for which she should be thankful. As for Mr Doyle's statements, they are only reiteration and all beside the question. As 1 said before, if he wants to get away with his paper in the early morning before the Worth Island and Canterbury mails get to Timaru, let him by all means, but it is another matter when the Government subsidises him. Let us have independent rural mail* as they have in Canada and America, run by Government officials, mailmen, independent of any firm's business. As I said in a previous letter, here's a chance to place some returned soldiers. Not one of us in the back-blocks, outside any with axes to grind, will object to pay the annual fee for delivery if the services are made effective. Just imagine an "express" mail service, bringing not only important business correspondence from Canterbury and other parts of New Zealand, and from all over the world having, after being brought to Timaru, to wait there a day before it is Bent out again. And as Mr Doyle seems to lay such store on ! his local paper, why should my copy of "The Press"—which I, like hundreds of others in South Canterbury, have subscribed to for many years, and on which I have to rely for the world's news, have to remain one day in Timaru before it is sent out -to me. What sort of efficient mail service is thisP Why, in all countries of any note—and I have visited the Old Land, Canada, America and others—the Government strive in every way possible to get the newspaper press distribute at the earliest possible moment, especially to the back-blocks, recognising that it is all important that the masses should have the news. . . It is hoped here, with the institution of the rural mail 'deliveries, that the Government will resort to old-time linking up of the mails and thus move the slur cast upon them by the presen* "go slow" method. It may be that Cabinet does not know that mails have to remain in the Timaru post office a dav before being delivered, but they should, and in making their new arrangements, they should think of retnrned soldiers out of work. / I thank you for giving me the opportunity of reply and for giving so much of your valuable space up to the corns-pondence.-Yours.eto., pARMm South Canterbury. [This correspondence may now cease. — Editor "The Press."] THE CHURCHES AND GAMBLING. TO THB ZDITOB OT "THE PRESS." Sir— The famous and shrewd master

of Balliol College, Oxford, used to sny to his students— of whom nftnrwnrds rose to high positions in the political world—"never argue." The Council of Christian Congregations might well take this warning to themselves. The pamphlet on gambling bristles with argument. It will have little or no effect on the racing community, nor on those who indulge in gambling. Its intention is excellent. X am in entire agreement with the members of the Council in deploring the extent of the habit of gambling, and could wißh that gambling of every description and kind were entirely abandoned by everyone, whether on the racecourse or in clubs or in privat* drnwincc-rooins. But an argumentative, pamphlet such as that put forward by the Council of Ohri«£nn Congrerntioiu in my opinion defeats its own purpoi®. —Yours," etc., M.A. (Oxon.) ■ St; Albans, November 3rd.