RURAL MAIL DELIVERY

Otago Witness, Issue 3526, 11 October 1921, Page 22

RURAL MAIL DELIVERY

PROTEST AGAINST PROPOSED CHANGE. TTMARU, October 8. Messrs J. Bitcliener and T. O. Burnett, M.P. s for rural constituencies, met nearly 100 farmers to-day to hear their opinions on the Postal Department's proposal to charge £2 a year per house for rural mail deliveries, with certain conditions and restrictions attached. Circulars have been distributed asking the settlers to sign an agreement to pay to ensure the service. "Mr Bitcliener said lie was a rural settler, and he had not signed the agreement. He admitted that something must be done to square the receipts and expenditure, but this charge was too drastic. Mr Bvi'tieri, in arguing for the backblocks' men, said he considered that these should be helped by those who were better situated. Rural mails caused a 10.-s of £4OOO a year, and the department wanted tiioia io iie self-supporting. A discussion lasting an hour and a-half took place, most of the speakers being men appointed to voice the opinions of local district meetings. All the speakers condemned the proposed charge. It was stated that, Blanks to the enterprise of Ihe ’J itnaru Herald Company in c<tablUlismr delivery routes. South Canterbury had the closest and the only profitable rural service in ihe dominion. Mr W. T. Co,id (chief postmaster), who was present, gave information regarding the costs. idle following resolution was carried, with two dissentients:—"That this meeting is of opinion that the imposition of a charge oi £2 a year is tin unjust burden on the farming community, unfair in its operation, and undemocratii in principle. Any extra postal charge should bo spread over the whole community by an increase of the postage rates or by a delivery charge imposed on every household and business institution.” A second re-solution, which was carried bv it small majority, was that the rural mail sections that paid should not be subject to the propose.l charge, and that, sections becoming profitable should be freed from it.