RURAL MAIL SERVICE

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 28, 2 August 1921, Page 7

RURAL MAIL SERVICE

NEW SCHEME OUTLINED BY POSTMASTER-GENERAL..

(IT miGIUPB.—PM6S ASSOCIATION.)

AUCKLAND, Ist August.

Important new proposals in regard to the rural mail service were outlined by the Hon. J. G. Coates (PostmasterGeneral), at Manurewa to-day.

At a function held after the opening of the new post office, the Minister said that at present tho settlers had to secure a contractor, and the Department paid a certain sum, the settler finding the balance of the. cost of the service. The cost could not be passed on to'tho public, and he was considering a proposal by the Department that there should be a charge of £2 per year for every settler along the road, provided there were four settlers to a mile, for a daily delivery, and £1 a year for a tri-weekly delivery, as under the present guarantee system a man could pull out at any moment. "If a man puts out a kerosene tin or letterbox, he must deliver his mail into it. We want to get at the man who won't carry out his share of responsibility. Under the new scheme, if a man doesn't care to come into it, ho can just hop on to his old pony and toddle off to the nearest post office. It is the endeavour of the Department to arrange, as far as possible, for some facilities for the people who were game enough to settle in. the backblocks."