THE POST OFFICE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 10462, 23 May 1910, Page 1

THE POST OFFICE.

To the Editor.

Sir,—The external appearance of the .Oamaru Post Office is most ornate, arid the evenly-balanced style of architecture is a high example of the yof ' the designer. So much for. the outside. Inside the. office is about as in•convferiieritlv planned as the merest ap- . prentice could- devise, the suggestion' being that an architect drew the plans of the four walls and the office : boy did the rest. My business takes mo to post and telegraph offices throughout the South, Island,, and Oamaru, I say? without reservation, ihas one-of the very finest'offices with the very worst conveniences for the transaction of business. The main entrance does not lead •to the P.O. but to the posting and let-ter-boxe's. The main door is -a small one, and was apparently put in as an after-thought at the north corner. With the dodr put in, the 1 designer started to fix things with the haziest conception of what was wanted. Then he put -in a little room with two doors, one leading to the money-order counter and the other to the public counter, but on entering either door you -find yourself in the same room. Another corner of this room lias been partitioned off as a postmaster's office, and another corner has the Public telephone. Running down the* centre of the room is a long counter, .and on this post, telegraph, and savings bank business is transacted. Not long since a low barrier was put up, and this, unsightly as it is, has been the means of giving-a little privacy to those doing savings bank business. With the large quantity of 'floor space available a really "convenient office could have been made, but people have' apparently become so accustomed to the inconveniences that they are quite satisfied. As to present requirements, I would point out that the town has now' grown "to -such dimensions that the post and telegraph counters should be distinctly separate, and I -think the business warrants this. Then Oamaru has a large Volume of savings bank business apart from money orders, postal notes, fete. Surely this should - entitle it to have a proper office instead of the twenty-years-behind-the-times makeshift that now does duty. After due reflection I am-forced to the conclusion that the designer of the interior of the -building must have intended the present public office as a lumber room, but in drawing his plans completely forgot the public office; hence lie had to jamb it in somewhere, and every day further demonstrates the error of the mishap.—l am, etc., OBSERVER.