INLAND MAILS

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22795, 22 August 1939, Page 7

INLAND MAILS

~,v ... 1500 ROAD CONTRACTS LARGE ANNUAL MILEAGE The transport, of New Zealand’s inland malls represents a fea£ of organisation which provides without fail, day after'day, *the means of cheap and certain ’communication- tothempst remote parts , of the Dominion, The. backbone of the inland, mail, service is the 3300 miles of rail routes which constitute the main stream of mail traffic, the tributaries being more than -1500 road services-, conducted by.’ private contractors who~also serye. the public , in, passenger and goods transport. - As: -the : Post - Office has always followed the policy of- utilising, these private road services,’, the growth of its business in-this sphere provides a vivid picture of the- development which has taken place in the, use, of the mdtor--.yehicle on our roads within ar comiparatively few years. The first occasion dh which a motor-vehicle was used ’fpr’mail transport, in New Zealand was in- 1003 between Rotorua and Taupo. The enormous growth of road motor transport since then is shown' by the following details of the mileages covered annually by the road services carrying mails: 1925, : 5,064,494; 1935, 8.366,208; 1939. 9,388,546. Paissenger • and goods services, newspaper .deliveries,, and., even the rounds of country trades people, are utilised ■by the Post Office 1 for mail transport, and these official arrangements have an influence in maintaining the regularity ‘offroad services. A great variety , of road must be carefully , synchronised’so'that the flow of the mail traffic ; is - continuous, the making of connexions between railway and road, and the: linkirigup>of many’road routes On a -:coritinuous 'schedule being points which rhstve to be observed'in arranging 'the'cohtraCts. ~ Although the carriage of. inland .mails oy road services represents a* Substantial’proportion* of the department’s annual*ekpehditure,.,the cost of ;‘the service is net unreasonable because it is. hosed von/the regular’ use. of motoryehiclfes -ipr Other gpublic purposes,, and the Post- Office’ 'suSsfdy' is' only a porTtion - of- ( the gross rCevenue of the? contractor. The contracts are so. numerous that normally only' one-third can, be-T.pe.viewed arrangements being made for the ensuing, three years, and the Dominion subdivided into three

large areas .§6-that a portion can ceive attention,every third:year..'/ ; The road services are in general the feeders -of the railway, there are cases where because of the unsuitability of the railway, tables; arrangements have to be Mile for road transport on a route, paraiftelr to the!fail. -It:is;also necessary to/use“ river and harbour services, and,; the .re-gular-trips of launches ih such localitips a; the Bay-of Islands and theAlarlborough Sounds, .where.i the. of. cream for dairy factories'is -.associated - with the distribution 'of Hhe.rhails. • Some of the road routes' used for mail transport-are of. -length, 159 miles of / transpprt/iti-?e^*disec : tiont Qtiria td,; Kaitaia.f 'iNOrth Auckland) 73 /friiles; Te ! KuitiNew' Plymouth 109 miles;, and Inyercar-gill-Queenstown 119 miles. "■ ' J