The Evening Mail WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE NEW ZEALAND AGRICULTURIST. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1878.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 826, 6 December 1878, Page 2

The Evening Mail WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE NEW ZEALAND AGRICULTURIST. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1878.

The persistency of the Oamaru Chamber of Commerce in endeavoring to secure the advantages of telegraphic communication from live to seven o'clock daily is worthy of admiration. They are not unreasonable men, who are advocating so strenuously the bestowal of such a concession ; they are only common sense business men, whose ideas of the matter are too practical to enable them to accept the excuses for non-compliance of the Commissioner of Telegraphs as being worth anything. We would imagine, judging from the replies to the Chamber by the Commissioner, that his knowledge of Oamaru is limited—very limited ; that lie is one ot those men who are so much the enemies of progression that they feel if incumbent upon them to apply the brake to tlie spirit of enterprise in others ; or that lie is quite careless of the interests of those places that cannot directly all'eet his position. Wo do not like to say hard things of anyone, but wo are forced to do so on this occasion through tlie senseless opposition of tlio Commissioner of Telegraphs to a request, the granting of which means benefitting not only Oamaru, but tlie Colony. Oamaru ranks as the fifth town, and the district around it as one of the best, of the Colony. It is absurd to saythat Oamaru is not entitled to the privilege for which, through her Chamber of Commerce, she asks, because other places are not entitled to it. If the Commissioner is ignorant of Oamaru s importance, let him enquire of those that have either been eye-witnesses of it, or peruse the statistics of lier trade ; if he fears that her energy and enterprise arc producing an ephemeral or transient prosperity, let him make full inquiries upon the subject ; or, if he is regardless of the just claims of Oamaru, the sooner he resigns his position of trust the better. It is nonsense to say that the petition of the Chamber of Commerce must bo thrust aside because of the additional expense that would be entailed in carrying out the request contained in that petition. It may be viewed by anybody but the Commissioner of Telegraphs as highly ridiculous to point out that the keeping open of the Telegraph Office for the additional two hours a day would not entail much additional expense ; but we trust that the public, and those that are not Government officials, swaddled in the red tape of ollicial obstructiveness, will pardon the intliction for the sake of the Commissioner of Telegraphs and this district. Two hours a day—o24 hours per annum, costing, at 2s. per hour, LG2 Ss. Say that it would entail an additional expenditure to the department of LIOO per annum, the amount would be so small as to be unworthy of a second thought. Two or, at most, three telegrams in addition to the ordinary business would pay this expense. To be candid, we can scarcely believe that the Commissioner of Telegi'aphs has ever thought for one moment about the matter. It would almost appear that he had received the request, and had scarcely got beyond the word Oamaru when he threw it to his amanuensis to be dealt with according to his narrow ideas and limited knowledge of the merits of the case. The following is the motion proposed by Mr. Sumpter, seconded by j\lr. Hitmphkey, and passed by the Chamber at last Tuesday's meeting :—" That this Chamber respectfully requests the Commissioner of Telegraphs to reconsider his decision as to keeping the Telegraph Office open between 5 and 7 of an evening, and wishes to point our to him that Oamaru occupies a diiterent position to those places mentioned in his letter, and owing to its shipping ana commercial relations it is almost a necessity to the mercantile coinmuiiit) that the office should be opened between the hours alluded to. Further, it is frequently impossible to gel a reply to a communication forwarded as i p.m. before Is p.m., and serious delay to sinpj'iiKt. «.Vc\. is

sometimes the result. 'J iw Cli.uiibu":' feels confident that no less would accrue t<> the department if such alierain>n were made, and would ask that a trial be made, say for six months.'' "Wo woiulyr what will be the reply to this I If unsatisfactory, tvu mistake the quality of the material of which the Chamber is composed if the matter he allowed to drop. The Oamaru Chamber of Commerce will accept nothing less than a trial of that for v.-hich they ask, and their persistency will, we believe, be productive of the desired result. We sincerely hope that the Commissioner will give the Chamber of Commerce no further trouble over a matter about which there should have been no discussion.