OUT OF DATE,

Evening Post, Volume LXXIII, Issue 67, 20 March 1907, Page 7

OUT OF DATE,

UNRECORDED PASSENGEB STEAMER MOVEMENTS. COMPLAINT AGAINST AN ANCIENT SYSTEM. " I would like to bring under you». notice the lamentably out-of-date system, under which the public notice board of shipping telegrams, situated at the en-i trance to tho General Post Office, is com ducted. The notice board in question purports to give a record of the moremerits of the coastal shipping of iixn colony, but the system, or lack of system, which characterises the working oi the board, is certainly no credit to this department which controls the work, aa£ I think the public is fairly entitled t« more consideration in tho matter of racording the movements of ,our coastal 6teamers. The regular traders fronr Wellington leave hero, and the arriva 1 ' at the next, port is duly chronicled oh the board, but after that nothing more is heard of the boats for several days, although they call at various other portf before returning to Wellington.' 1 The above is the complaint of a cor* respondent "Rosad." Examples of th<i inadequacy of tho present arrangement* arc easy to find. Take the cuso of a vessel leaving Wellington for Nelson and the West Coast, and full of passengers, as these steamers usually are. He» movements would be closely followed by friends and relatives of the passengers* who would naturally look to the publi* notice board at the Post Office for advice of the vessel. That many do look; is certain, but it is also equally certain that they do no.t Gnd what they misht. reasonably expect. The steamer leaves Wellington, and her arrival at Nelson ia posted on tho board in dne course Her departure from Nelson is not advised however, nor is her arrival at Wostport telegraphed, or her departure for or ar. rival at Groymouth. And so tho steamer goes on her round trip, and nothing mo » can be learned of her movements from the telegraph board until she leaves Net ■™.1S£ U °" ]*- re^ m to Wellington. The same condition of things applies to AucH a nd llißK^ r *> iCr ' f»«"£Sr«£ Auckland. The tuno of arrival at Napier is posted, but as to what time the .steamer leaves for and arrives at (S can be gathered from the notice board. Again, when a ship sa il s f or NowPlv mouth and Onehnnga, h« arrival Tat fhJ 55 11 J rin » nHl .« .tele K raphed, but after that the board is a bfank until th* SmsnE gg a baCk at "™ Pl^* U "> Oar correspondent has voiced a R e n eral complaint, but not an original one, On two occasions within the last twe years, the antiquity of the. present sys i tern has been dealt with in those columns, but so far the authorities have S not soen lit to depart from a method which was considered only fairly satisfac tory twenty years ngo. The destrablenen of systematic following of tho move' ments of .coastal vessels, more ospocwuy boats carrying passengers, appears to impress everybody but the department controlling the work.