The Evening Mail. MONDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1878.

Oamaru Mail, Volume III, Issue 794, 28 October 1878, Page 2

The Evening Mail. MONDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1878.

The Timaru Herald and other morning journals complain of the delays that occur in the transmission of their telegraphic messages from Wellington ; but the evening papers utter not a word on the same score. Not that they have no reason to do so ; for we have made memoranda which would demonstrate that we are quite as badly treated as the morning papers, and we suppose that_ our evening contemporaries are not exceptions. It is a tittle annoying when telegrams that are handed into the Wellington office early in the morning do not reach us till too late in the afternoon for publication in our halfpast three country edition. Strange as it may seem, as we ocasionally jot down the particulars of receipt and despatch that appear in our messages, we are in a position to verify that the most unconscionable delays do occur in the transmission of our telegrams. We are long-suffering, and therefore we have been smiling and beai-ing what would to others- be productive of annoyance. If evening papers do not receive their telegraphic messages promptly, at least they have the pleasure of paying the Government a price for them that is commensurate with their importance. There is nothing mean about it; and, although we are mindful of, and thoroughly appreciate, the honor which the Government has conferred upon ns by fixing our tariff at about three times that of morning papers for a thousand words, it would not cause a diminution of our appreciation one whit if we obtained that for which we pay. A higher scale is imposed upon us because the transmission of our messages interfere with the ordinary business on the line. We now frequently get our Wellington messages several hours old'; but we console ourselves with the thought that if we did not pay so high a figure for them we might get them two or three days old. We wonder whether evening paper press messages interfere with the transmission of ordinary telegrams, or whether ordinary telegrams interfere with the transmission of evening paper telegrams. Not that it matters much. We have before pointed out that we are not so proud that we would object to a reduction in the rates charged us, and a little more despatch in the transmission of our messages. The last occasion that we signified our desire that the Department might perhaps let us have our messages a little earlier after receipt the General Manager of Telegraphs thanked us "for calling attention to the matter," but said that no .delay occurred which the Department could possibly obviate ; and it is with the object of again being the recipients of his thanks —which we prize more than anything else—that we once more refer to the matter.