RURAL DELIVERIES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20868, 9 May 1931, Page 9

RURAL DELIVERIES.

SYSTEM OF CHARGING. FARMERS' UNION PROTEST. [FROM our own correspondent.] HAMILTON, Friday. The charge made by the Postal Department for rural mail deliveries formed the subject of correspondence read at the meeting of the Waikato executive of the Farmers' Union to-day.. In reply to a protest made by the union against the present charges, tho Post-master-General, Hon. J. B. Donald, wrote stating that some years ago mail matter for settlers on the few rural delivery routes then in operation was delivered to settlers* pates free of cost. The advantages of tho system were fully recognised by settlers then as they are now and many requests for the establishment of further services rendered necessary a complete review of the system. The result was the efficient, though not self-supporting, network of rural mail services in existence to-day. This had been made possible only by the charging of a small delivery fee. It was now recognised by farmers that tho time spent in travelling to a post office to transact postal business could bo more profitably employed in their holdings and that the small fee paid for a rural delivery service was saved many times over bv the more profitable employment of tho time saved. In the. circumstances it was regretted that the delivery of mail matter free ot cost to the box-holders could not be-favour-ablv considered. The executive decided to wnt o it was still emphatically of tl,e °P' nl ° d that as the postal system was a one, the cost of extension should be born# by one and all. alike. v.-r;