EKETAHUNA POST OFFICE.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4308, 18 March 1901, Page 3

EKETAHUNA POST OFFICE.

* ♦ OPENED P*Y THE postmastbkgeneral. (VEREMONY ON SATURDAY. PROGRESS oFdistihct and PROVINCE. The new jifixl office at Ekcl.ah inn, which is the first brick building to bo erected in 11 j o low ll , was ceremonially opened on Saturday by tlie Postmaster. Genera! (Hon J. 0. Ward) in the pn.-s----euco of a iirnicrons gathering of residents of Hu* district. The office is in 4i side streat, lint it is by no means inconveniently situated. It is a line two. ■'lory building, mid its cost was Cl Kid. The land on ivbioh it stands was pnr<Tased for £l7O, a. Mini considerably loss tban its present value. The bricks used in, tlie construction of the building were manufactured at Carterton. Cement ■dressings add to the effectiveness of tile faced brickwork of the exterior. '1 In- various rooms have plastered walls. In arrangement the building is very convenient, ami it is particularly veil lighted. d'!io post office proper consists ol a mail and instrument room, the postmaster’s private room and a public lobby. Tbo equipment includes a telephone exchange. Downstairs there are also a dining-room, kitchen and scullery, with hot and on Id water fittings. Eonr bedrooms a sitting-room, a bathroom, and a. lava lory are on the upper floor. The contractor for Die building was .Mr C. E. Daniel), and during its erection ilr J. ,7. Thacker 1 represented the Public Works Department as clerk of works. .Mr T. Rose, assistant secretary and inspector, Post and Telegraph Department, was in Eketahuna on .Saturday, making arrangements for the official! opening of the ollice to-day.

Tho Postmaster-General travelled from Wellington by the mail train nn Saturday morning, and on his way to Kketahnna, was joined by Mr J. T. AL Hornsby, M.1i.1t., for VValnuapa, an! Mr A. \V. Hogg, A 1.11, It. for M.islerhin, ufc Carterton and Alastorton respectively. When Mr Ward stepped From the train at Eketahuna, Mr Hogg introduced him to various prominent tesi. dents. A procession took place from tho station through the town, which wa.s decorated with flags and foliage in 'honour of the occasion. Tho Ekc',a-, hiaia. .Mounted Hides, under Lieutenant | McDermott, a, well-lrnrsed body of mmi, I formed a. guard of honour, in the procession, which was marshalled by Dr M urray-A.ynsley, there marched the 'members of the County Connell, the Sta-to school oluldon. and members of the Loyal Kketahnna Lodge of tho Manchester Unity of Oddfellows and of Court Makakaki, of the Foresters’ Order. Tho day was lino, though tho sky was ovoroa.st. 1 Wh.cn. tho post office was reached. sotpc speeches were delivered in the hearing of a large crowd of people.

.Mr Thomas Parsons, chairman of tho County Council, said he was pleased io havo Mr Ward amongst them to open the post office, though he wished the Minister had been able to stay a. little humor. The building which -was abmvo to bo opened was a credit to the department. The district bad for some lime been neglected, but at last, be thought, the Government was waking up and helping it a little. He wa.s sure it deserved assistance. Its settlers came to dense forest, and they bad had to put up with. a. great deal. The Government] 1 ui l l ornamented the town, and now the settlors wanted it to open up their back I roads and bridge their rivers, (lie; r, 1 bear.) j Air Ward said it was a very groat plea-1 sure to him to visit Eketahuna on such 1 a, memorable occasion. Ho hoped that, the aspirations of the residents of tho, tow n and district would in every respect: bo fully realised. The town had great-, 'ly improved, since the pioneer settlers '• arrived. There wore visible signs of progress ail around. That day they' were entering upon a new era. so far. as tho local post office work was concerned. The town would progress in; proportion) as tho district progressed, j and he hoped that the roads and brid.j gc.s which Air Parsons had referred to | would ho showy -; ■ . ,- n them, as freely as was desired. W ho concluded, 'he might bo able to give seme information about roads and bridges which would show that the Government had! not’ boon altogether neglectful of the j settlors iu their portion of the country, j in giving a, brief account of tho postal j work in Eketahuna. Mr AVard mentioned smut) details which, he said, won el bo news to many of those standing bo-j foro him. The post *• office was firstopened on llii- Ist of July, 1876. Mr Gnstaf Bcnglson was tho first postmaster, and ho acted for twelve months. Between 1877 and 1883 there were four different postmasters. In 1883 Mr J. Jones wa.s appointed, and he continued j to act till the office was removed to the I railway station in 1889. Tho office at| Eketahuna did not carry any salary fori tho postmaster till 1880, when £5 i was allowed.

Money order and Savings bank work was first transacted at Eketalmna in 188 G, and the business for the first year was 138 money orders issued for £628, 34 money orders paid for £126, 13 ,sarings bank deposits for £B9 and 16 savings bank withdrawals for £231. The business in, 1890 was 615 money orders issued for £2310, 296 money orders paid for £1674, 123 savings bank deposits for £1643 and 92 savings bank withdrawals for £I9OO. In the year 1900 there were 1088 money orders issued for £3274, 322 money orders, pa id for £1282, 530 savings bank deposits for ,95992 and 252 savings bank withdrawals, for £3887. These figures, said Mr Ward, illustrated the growth of the district, and prosperity was indicated by the increase in the deposits in the savings bank, which was noticeable also throughout tno country. In 1892 the correspondence posted at Eketalmna was 23,647 letters, 1209 postcards, 2370 books, and 624 newspapers; and the eorrosp;ondonce delivered in the same year was 22,646 letters, 1443 postcards, 6175 books and ‘>334 newspapers. Eight years labor, in 1900, the number of letters posted v as 12,614, postcards 2561, books 1:4,233. and newspapers 10,146 ; and the number of articles delivered was 42,926 letters, 3237 postcards, 17,524 hooks and 11,271 newspapers. There was thus an increase during the eight years of 85 per cent of letters, 119 per cent of postcards, 248 per cent of books, and 175 per cent of jo uspapecs. The telephon'd office was first opened on the 25th February. 1890. During (lint year 1320 telegrams wore forwa'tl. ed. of the value of £OB, and 900 telegrams were received. In 1900 there wore 4518 telegrams forwarded, of the value of £143, and 6719 telegrams were received. Mr Ward wont on to say that lie would also toll them a little about the development of the postal work in the Wellington district, since the Eketahuna office was established. The number of post offices in the Wellington district in 1870. including Wanganui, then part of the Wellington district, was 61. In 1899 the number was. Wellington 163, and Wanganui 86. The total money order and savings bank business for the Wellington and Wanganui district in 1876 was 11.284 money orders issued fur £52,616, 10,776 money orders paid for £10,033,’ 12,063 savings bank deposits.

for £127,157, and 7250 savings bank withdrawals for £121,100. For the year J DUO the combined Wellington and Wanganui business was 81,800 money orders issued for £'.Aj8,033, 03 ,-171 mom*;.' orders paid for £212,031), 02,075 savir bank deposits for £1,018,053, and 57.500 withdrawals for £022.183. The* manner in which the erection the new oilice hud been carried out, tinned the Minister, reflected the greatest possible credit upon -Mr Danieil, tm contract.'jr. The office would be official y ojuiied on .Monday morning for busitmw. There was in the office all the equipr.n nt necessary to transact a much Jarg. amount of busine-s than was now dom );, fact, the Government, in erecting (Ins and other public buildings, was providing, u°b merely lor the wants of v'ae present time, but for those of mai.', years ahead. (Hear, hear.) Ho hoped (inbuilding would in a few years prove in adequate for the requirements of tin district. (Applause.) Tlie redden.

might depend upon it that the Government—and the present Adminislraf ion would be in office for ten or fifteen year: yet (laughter)—would be prepared G make extensions whenever they were icon ired. It was well, added Air Ward, tin! they should realise what was going arimnd them. And it was only when public men came among them and gave them, the details that they were aide to know the position of things, or follow the course of events. A return of the laud in cultivation in the county oi Eketah una in January, 1900, show 1 that then* were 308 holdings, 110 acr» ••

in crops, 05 acres in sown grasses aft., having been ploughed, 53,128 acres in sown grasses but not previously ploughed, and 53,780 acres in grasses, falkr gardens, orchards and plantations, w live stock there were in the county Oh horses, 7600 cattle, 05,978 sheep, and 1031 pigs-—the “gintlemon who pam the rint.” (Laughter.) He was unable ti make comparisons with former years, a.‘ Eketahuna bad been recently cut out, of Wairarapa North, and the unit for the collection of agrieultiiru.) statistics wa> the comity, but the figures were beyond doubt very .satisfactory. (Applause). The number of selectors in’the Wellington land district during the ten yearsended tlie -‘list March last was 4028, wiio selected 778,438 acres. The revenue reel ived for the sumo period was £620,521 The ■ number of tenants (leasehold an ! deferred payment tenures) on the bookof the Department for the district in 1891 was 2031, holding 487,029 acre 1 -- and paying a yearly rental of £31,80, In 1900 the tenants numbered 2317,

Iml ding 564.934 acres, and paying an annual rental of £28,836. During c!;,.same period 17.17 tenants converted tv freeholds their deferred payment am' perpetual lease holdings of an area i,l 381,298 acres. The purchasers for cash numbered 766, They purchased an area of 19,090 acres, and paid the sum cl £29,926. In addition there wore 110 selectors of village cash sections containing an area of 136 acres. The estimated land revenue for rite district for th' twelve mouths, 1900-1901 was £42,309. tv bile tho actual receipts- for the ten months of the year were £44,395, a surplus of .£1926. In Pahiatua and Ekctal tuna, since 1891, there had been proclaimed nineteen special settlements, which were taken up -by 474 selectors, the area being 103,838 acres. There wore also seve.. village settlements of 130 sections, containing 2280 acres, and cighty-one improved farm sections, containing 10.84! acres.

As reference had been made to road.-, , and badges, Air AVard said it would hr. I of interest if he gave a statement of the ! works dene, by tho Lands and Serve, Department in the Pahiatua and Eket;;- , humi counties, and also in the AVelling- , ton Land District as a whole. The ex- : penditure in thol Pahiatua county from , tho year 1890-91 to date was £100,924.. and in the Eketahuna county £BOI6. Fo tho AVellington Land District the expenditure was £568,431. So far as road construction went, in Pahiatua county, during the last nine years, 3b miles 71 chains of dray roads, 50 miles 31 chain? | of bridle roads, and 26 bridges of ovo; i 3O feet span had been made. In Ekvj tahuna county, 21 miles 42 chains cl dray roads, 14 miles 10 chains of Lrid! - roads, and four bridges of over 30 feet span had been made in the same period. For the Wellington district for the last I ten years the figures wore—s9l miles IS3 chains of dray roads, 731 miles 2P 1 chains of bridle loads, and 137 bridges I of over 30 fetet span. I In regard to votes for roads and bridge;, [ tho Minister said he wished to remove a misapprehension which existed in some quarters, There was an assumption thai when the 31st March arrived a vote whicl had been put on the Estimates went out of existence. It did nothing of the kind It was available for expenditure by th r administration. They could go on ex pending it until Parliament melt again All that was necessary to be done ther was to have it put on the Estimates fci tho purpose cf having it re-voted. Then was no stoppage of expenditure, nedthe would there be any stoppage, in such cir- . cuinstances, so far as the Eketahuna oi any other district was concerned. (Ap plause). Mr AVard next referred to a matte which, hd said, was of special importance to his hearers. For many yearpast they had had to work against r difficulty which was due to the engineering imagination of the men who originally established the railway across tin Rimutaka range. Some engineers had i: peculiar desire to show, not how the.' could avoid obstacles, but how they ccul: get over them. (Laughter). _ The Rimetaka incline was an inheritance. In consequence! of the heavy cost of getting trains oyer it, the people of the AVairarapa and other districts had an extra five miles put on in the railway charge. During last year that extra charge totalled £7OOO. He was very glad to be able to tell them that after conference with the Premier and his other colleagueho had agreed that next month the impost of a charge for five miles extra sheulc' be removed. The ordinary mileage won’t bo allowed as from the Ist May. Thai was a reform for which Messrs Hog;. Hornsby and O’Alcar.-vhad worked indc fatigabfy, and ho was pleased to thin' that their efforts had been successful Tho Government, having the whole country to consider, had to move some what slowly in making reforms. Refer Ministers were able to agree to tailin' another £7OOO per annum off tho'revc nuc, they had naturally, as prudent men to wait 'until they saw the workings ri the railway and other revenue of the colony. The anomaly was, however, now to bo removed. Its removal won’.: bo finally decided upon at the next Cabinet meeting. In conclusion, Air Warn congratulated the town and district up; tho way in which the demonstration o' tho day was organised and attended. (Applause). At the conclusion of his speech, Air Ward elicited a hearty round of chcr-rs for the new post office, which, as h; neatly observed, could .not reply, be cause it was, and ever would be, tonguetiud. Air A. AV. Hogg, M.H.R., also spoke in terms of appreciation of the way in which the townspeople and settlers h"d celebrated the opening of the building. There was more cheering, and the Pos L master-General, having formally unlock ed the entrance door, tho public were admitted to the post office, and inspected the building with interest.

i Immediately after the ceremony, the ’visitors, with members of the County Council and other leading residents, partook oflnncheon at the Eketahuna Hotel. An informal toast-list, beginning with tho health of “The King,” was gone through at express speed. In the course of n brief speech, Air Ward said he was exceedingly sorry that public business bad prevented him from arriving in Eketahuna on Friday, as had been desired. He trustdd that on some future occasion ho would be able to spend a longer time in the district. (Applause). Before leaving Eketahuna, where he spent less than two hours, Mr Ward was interviewed by deputations, who laid before him various matters of local concern. Ho also had interviews on the train with the members for tho neighbouring districts, Air J. (TAlcara, M.H.R. for Pahiatua, being a passenger by the down mail as far as Alastcrton.