POSTAL DEFICIENCIES.

New Zealand Herald, Issue 160, 18 May 1864, Page 3

POSTAL DEFICIENCIES.

Ake the public to wait until the IN'cw Post Office is ui , we have been asked, before anything like a uselul reform is attempted to be'iutro(luced into the postal arrangements of tins .io\uue. It we may judge irom present appearances tliey are likely to wait long enough, tor the same ineoiiveniencc.s, the same absence ot thorough attention to the warns ol the public are as patent to-day as yesterday, this year as

In a tew days the English mail will arrive in Auckland, and for the general public, who have no private letter-boxes, there will be the dis£l <u t'fnl, intolerable ,«eiiil!o of a coiiplc of d;iys around the lour delivery windows of the ollit-e, the tuiine heated feverish confusion ainoiii; the overtasked elerks within that there has'beeii month by month for years past ; and as a neressary consequence many a person will be sent \uth the words "there are no letters lor yon. \a ho, on a return to the oilicu a few days alterw aids, when the hurry scurry and bustio is o\er, will find letter or papers which should have been delivered on his former visit. The Aucklaud 1 ost Oiliee is a scandal and a disgrace to so enterprising and progressive a nn-rcantile community as this. A\ edo not say this with the slightest intention ot blaming one of tiie employees in that oiliee from the chief clerk downwards. As we have said before, tliev are about tiie hardest worked and the worst paid of any class ot Government otlieials, and to expect them to tulliil the duties of the department eiiieiently, as they are at present circumstanced, would be expecting them lonuilce bricks without straw. The Cioverniuent very properly monopolises the forwarding and transmission of the nniiis, but in doing so, it is bound to study t lie general interest, of the people, anil to supply their requirements in this particular, as thoroughly as they could have I jeen supplied by private enterprise did such monopoly not exist.

l'or along time past, there has been a weekly mail to the Aorthcrn ihstricts which leaves Auckland each Wednesday morning. At tirst this met the wants of the people tolerably well but at the present moment it is far behind the requirements of the times. The English maii may arrive on a Tuesday or \\ ednesiiay, anil the home letters ol the sctLlers must remain iu the Auckland Post Oiliee a w hole week, bctore even they commence their journey Northwards, there is now a considerable amount of commercial intercourse between Auckland and various settlements in the .North, and the want of more Irequeiit postal communication is absolutely necessary. A settler or storekeeper very often does not know- until the arrival of the vessel itself that his agent in town lias forwarded goods to him. ami lie may at the same time be eight or ten miles l'rom tiie landing place of the district, and be ignorant for days of the tact, that the boat which lias just arrived contains goods tor himseil. Or even, if lie casually hears that, such is the case, he may, from I lie want of knowing it bejore. be so circumstanced as to be unable to fetch tiiem away, and be compelled to leave them tit the landing place tit considerable risk for a day or tw u.

All this might be avoided were there more Irequeiit postal communication, and we think that the mail should be lorwarded at least twice a week to tiie North. The people, too, living in the country districts have a right to expect to be put in closer couiteeUon with the news of the day, in these stirring times than they tit present arc. W c could point out half a score of most patent shortcomings in tiie working of this department a licet ing both town anil country, were we at prc.-cnt disposed but shad defer them to a more convenient season.