King Country residents challenge mail monopoly

Press, 1 December 1987, Page 8

King Country residents challenge mail monopoly

PA Hamilton Some King Country residents yesterday challenged New Zealand Post’s monopoly and began their own mail service. In a plan kept secret for fear of legal repercussions, the Coast Community Society was to launch its document exchange with an official opening in Te Kuiti by the Leader of the Opposition and member of Parliament for King Country, Mr Bolger. The move by Waitomi, Te Anga, Marakopa and Taharoa rural residents who /formed the society

comes after their traditional rural delivery service was replaced under New Zealand Post’s new tendering system. The tender system which only allows for mail delivery angered King Country residents who valued the old service which also carried medical prescriptions, meat, milk, bread, and other freight. > As a first move the residents redirected their » mail to the Te Kuiti Post Office main counter where it was picked up for delivery by the original delivery service Perry

Buses. The action, supported by a third of Te Kuiti businesses and some firms in Otorohanga, uses a loophole in the New Zealand Post Office Act A society spokesman, Mr David Kerry, said that a main street Te Kuiti premises had been declared a document exchange, as had all the letter boxes and offices of residents and businesses who were members of the Coast Community Society. The King Country scheme had been supported by the Rural Mail Contractors Association