DEPUTATIONS TO THE PREMIER.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLI, Issue 306, 3 December 1906, Page 3

DEPUTATIONS TO THE PREMIER.

A RECEIVING OFFICE ASKED. FOR. the request"~decijned fo: the present. • " This afternoon a number of deputs tions (introduced by Mr Graham) wail ed on the Premier at the Municips Buildings. There \ve*e between 5( and 60 business people present. The first deputation hod as its re quest the conversion of the old Pos Office in a Receiving Office. Mr A. T. Maginnity, who was thi first spokesman, said there had been i good deal of feeling over the Post Of fice site, but that feeling was nov dead. But he would ask the Premiei to fulfil a promise made to give th< business people of the southern portior of the city reasonable facilities,, . ioi carrying on their business. The mat ter had received careful consideration but no unreasonable demand would be made. Mr Maginnity congratulated the Government and the people on the fine building that had been erected. He said that the south was the chief business end of the city, and for every telegram sent from the northern end the south sent ten. (App.) They asked the Government to make the old office a Receiving Office for letters registered letters, and telegrams. Mr H. Baigent said many businesses — his own for instance— had been started and continued where they were because they thought the jsite of the Post Office would not be changed. It was unfair to business people to shift the site. Mr Seddon had said to a deputation that to remove the Post Office would mean Compensation to business people, but the late Premier may have been joking at the time he made the remark, though he had previously said that business places always went up in the vicinity of a Post Office. Mr M. Lightband endorsed the request being made. In reply the Premier said he could not establish the precedent of having two post offices in one small town. He pointed out that the post office at Invercargill was near the railway station and °° the outskirts of the town, and if Nelson could claim a second post office Invercargill could .do the same He was prepared to watch the extent of any grievance and inconvenience the Hardy-street residents might suffer, and if in six months time the receiving box did not suffice he would be prepared to reconsider the matter of a receiving office. Sir Joseph further pointed out that there would be eight clearances daily at the receiving box, j with three postal deliveries, and these [ were facilities equai to those of any .town in the colony. J Other remarks were made by Messrs Maginnity and Percy Adams, the former wanting a record kept of the business done from the Hardy-street end, and Mr Adams stating that the more important telegrams would not be posted in l the receiving box, but be sent to the I chief post office by office boy or clerk Sir Joseph Ward, however, would not vary his original reply, except to state that he would get the officials to keep a close watch on the volume of business generally with a view to considering later on any representations as to the need of a receiving office for Hardy-street. . j ( Other deputations are being received as we go to press. j