NEW POST OFFICE

Evening Star, Issue 22720, 6 August 1937, Page 8

NEW POST OFFICE

TAINUi REQUEST REPEATED BlHiStHfi SN MUSttLßWfifl M6E A request that a new post and tele, graph office be erected at the corner of Cavell street and Musselburgh Rise to give facilities to the residents of Anderson’s Bay, Tainui, and Sunshine, was made' to the Postmaster-General (Hon. F. Jones) to-day by a deputation which presented a petition from 346 residents. The proposal would involve the transfer of business from the existing “ storekeeper post office ” at Ross Corner. The deputation, which consisted of Mesdames Denton Leech and W. Herbert and Messrs S. Hill and W. Brown, was introduced by Mr D. C. Cameron. It was explained that the Tainui district was fast expanding, and that the most central site for the post office would be at the corner of Cavell street and Musselburgh Rise, where, it was understood, the Government owned land on- which the telephone box now. stood. It was admitted that considerable filling in of. the site would be required. The signatories, who lived within the area bounded by Spottiswoode street and Queen’s Drive and Tahuna road and the Poriobello road, were anxious that a building in which only postal and savings bank business would be transacted privately should be provided. The residents felt that they should not have to travel into the city to transact their private business. However, Mr Jones pointed out that there was a mile between the post offices in the most thickly-popu-lated districts. , “ It is impossible for the PostmasterGeneral to comply with all the demands throughout New Zealand, said Mr Jones in his reply. During the depression. very little building was done, but in-the past two years the. department s business had increased so enormously that a five-year building fern had ing an expenditure of £3,000,000, » been drawn up. The most urgent works would, of course, have precedence. Throughout . New Zealand, districts had the same problem as ’that experienced by the residents of Tamui and Anderson’s Bay, but the present “ storekeeper post office was better than 90 per cent, of similar offices m the country, as the postal department was separate. The storekeeper post office ” had rendered a great service to the people of New Zealand; without them, the department could not have given the service. He realised the disabilities, and he was hoping that it would be possible to remove The suggestion was made that the Anderson’s Bay office should be closed and a new post office erected at Cavell street. He wondered what the residents of Waverley would say about that proposal. The officers of the department had also to take into consideration the amount of business be. ing done in the existing post offices, and since the new Chief Post Office was opened more business was being done in the city at the expense or the suburban offices. “All I can say is that I will go into the whole matter again with the view to providing facilities to meet with the convenience of the general public, said Mr Jones. “We hope to be a department rendering service to the public, but if we start to make a loss there will be a bigger squeal from the general public. We want to see that the Post and Telegraph Department is run on business-like lines. It is being improved, and we want to give better facilities-ywhich the_ deputation obviously realises, as it is asking for its share.” _