EARLY SETTLERS

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLV, Issue 58, 7 February 1925, Page 2

EARLY SETTLERS

POSTAL DIFFICULTIES IN EIGHTIES. In forwarding an apology for his unavoidable absence from the old settlers' dinner hold in connection with the jubilee of Woodvillo, Mr J. Motley, first postmaster of that township, recounted some of the difficulties under which the early settlers laboured. In the course of his letter he said:—"ln writing of myself as one who played perhaps only a minor port in the history of tho district, I, with your permission, wish to avail myself of this Opportunity in referring to a matter whioh used to come under my observation in d:!scharging my dutio9 as postmaster at Woodvillein 1881, and compare tho conditions obtaining in the district to-day. When I took charge of the post office in that year the only telegraphic communication was with Palmerston North, the wires on the Ilawke's Bay side only' reached to Makotuku and to Majtcrtoji on tho Wellington sid«. But to-day the ramifications of the telephone are spread liko a, net-work over the whole of the Dominion. And we know from experience how impatient wa are now apt to get if the telephone bureau fails to immediately connect say with Eketahuna. But in those days if Mrs Allardice, who was then postmistress at Danne virko, wished to send a telegram from a ( resident there to, say, a friend at Waipawa, she would put the telegram in the Woodville mail bag, which left Dannevirke at I about two o'clock. It would reach tho Woodville office about four o'clock the same afternoon and the telegram would in due course be sent by 'phoao to Palnierston North; it would then be transmitted to Foxton to be re-transmitted to Wellington and from Wellington it would be sent to Napier to be again wired to its destination at Waipawa. And if by some chance a resident at Dannevirke became possessed of surplus cash and wished to remit a Post Office money order to, say, Napier, the ; same genial and obliging postmistress ' would plooo the cash in an envelope with instructions and request to be furnished | with the necessary P.O. order. On receipt of game I used to issue tho order as requested and return to Dannevirke the following day by coach; the time which would elapse from the application being put in till the order reached Dannevirke would be nearly 24 hours. The same procedure applied "to Pahiatua."