MAIL DELIVERIES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26918, 2 November 1948, Page 6

MAIL DELIVERIES

MACANDREW BAY’S NEW SERVICE REVIEW OF POST OFFICE TRADITION The tradition of service which lay behind the Post Office was mentioned by the Minister of Defence, Mr Jones, when he took part in the function arranged to mark the inauguration of a postal delivery service to Macandrew Bay yesterday morning. In 1848, when the first Scottish emigrants landed at Port Chalmers, a post office was set up almost immediately, he said, and in Dunedin the first office was opened in a general store in the same year. Associations with the Homeland had been severed, and the post was a paramount necessity in maintaining tne bonds of kinship. “The demands which such ties of sentiment made for a postal service were reinforced by the needs of commerce and the developing economy of the colony,” he said. “A good post route was often judged a prime essential to the successful founding of a township. Dunedin shares with Christchurch the honour of having, in 1862, the first electric telegraph system in New Zealand. In that year a line was completed between Port Chalmers and Dunedin. The Daily Times for December 24, 1862, devoted an editorial to describing and explaining the equipment. It was crude enough by modern standards, but it must have looked wonderfully complex to an age in which telegraphy was regarded with something of the awe and wonder which is now reserved for such things as atomic energy and supersonic speeds. “ The Dunedin system differed somewhat from the Christchurch one, and a report on their respective merits was sought from the best authority available. A London engineer provided a report which was very helpful. It is amusing, however, to note that he advised among other things that ‘ almost any sized wire would do for the circuit, providing that the wires are not exposed to monkeys and large birds. “The year 1879 brought the Otago Province again to the forefront, this time with the telephone,” continued Mr Jones. “In that year the first telephone line in New Zealand was operated between Portobello and Port Chalmers, and it has been claimed by a former chief telegraph engineer of the Post Office that this telephone line was the first in the world to be used for the purpose of telephoning telegrams. Bell’s telephone was patented in 1876, which may serve to show how close up New Zealand was on overseas developments. “Post Offices at Macaridrew Bay, Broad Bay, and Portobello were all set up around the turn of the century,” said Mr Jones. “As is usual in smau communities, all these offices have been looked after by local residents, at the first two places in conjunction with other employment.” The first consignment of mail to be delivered in the new service yesterday was handed by Mr Jones to the local postman. The Minister expressed the hope that none of the residents would have the misfortune to find that the first mail delivered to them consisted wholly of bills. The residents' appreciation of the new delivery service was expressed by Messrs G. Simmon, G. F. Bewley, D. S. Fleming and A. D. Brown. Mr Jones was accompanied ,by Mr W. A Hudson, M.P., and the chief postmaster, Mr M. R. Aldridge. They were subsequently' entertained at morning tea at Portobello.