TOPICS OF THE DAY

Manawatu Standard, Volume 9163, Issue 9163, 12 March 1910, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY

For some time past a controversy has been proceeding between Heavy the Minister for Railways Sacks, and the Southern farmers regarding the weight of grain sacks. It was contended that heavy sacks were injurious to the health of those having to handle them, and consequently the' weight was fixed by Government regulation at 2001b. The penalty provided for a breach was a curious one. The owner of overweight sacks was fined four times the amount of freight he would have had to pay if the limit of 2001b was adhered to. Naturally this operated very harshly in cases where the weight exceeded the regulation by only a pound or two. The Farmers' Union asked that an allowance of 61b should be permitted— 31b for the sack and 31b for extra grain or irregularity in the scales. After much consideration tlie Minister for Railways has agreed to vary the regulations. It has been decided to make the gross weight per sack 2061b, and instead of the quadrupled freight the penalty is to be a uniform penalty of £3 per truck where the gross weight is exceeded. Merchants and farmers will be interested in the concessions, and will no doubt accommodate themselves to the new conditions.

In addition to the figures published during the week the . Postal Premier has made a furProgress. ther statement as to the remarkable progress of the Postal Department, one of the most successful of the public services. He says the business of the Department continues to increase rapidly throughout the Dominion.; In ten years, notwithstanding that practii cally every rate of postage was reduced by one-half or more during the period, the revenue rose from £445,340 to £920,021, .more than doubling itself in the time. The number of articles sent in the mails increased from 63,000,000 to 145,000,000, the number of telegrams rising in the same time from 2,250,000 to 7,000,000. These figures were easy to speak about, but it was difficult to grasp what was meant by 145,000,000. Supposing all those articles had been laid end to end, they would have covered a distance of 13,700 miles. When it was remembered that every letter posted had to pass through many hands before it reached its destination, and that every telegram had to be laboriously spelt out letter by letter from two to six times, and that complaints were very rare, it was evident that the New Zealand Post and Telegraph service was, to say the least, an efficient one. Nearly every year he had had the pleasure of ordering important changes in postal rates, and in methods of working, yet all these, involving as they did much preparation, had bean carried out without the slightest disorganisation. He had now in contemplation, and hoped definitely to announce shortly, many important changes for the benefit of the people living in the country. These would include a greatly improved parcel post service, rural deliveries, and telephone extension.