THE POSTMASTER-GENERAL.

Otago Witness, Issue 3912, 5 March 1929, Page 17

THE POSTMASTER-GENERAL.

DEPUTATIONS AT QUEENSTOWN.

“ WONDROUS WAKATIPU.” QUEENSTOWN, February 28. The Postm..ster-general and Minister ?r Te le sraphB (Mr J. B. Donald) and Mr G. M’Namara (secretary of the Post and Telegraph Department) arrived here lest night. This morning a deputation from the Queenstown Borough Council and the Progressive League was introduced by Mr W. A. Bodkin, M.P. for Central Otago. After according the Minister a warm welcome to Queenstown, the Mayor (Mr W. H. Overton) eaid they wished to bring three matters before him. The first of these was an extension of the local telephone hours, giving a service from 6 a.m. to midnight. There were already over 90 subscribers, but this was short of the number required to claim the extension asked for. In view of the importance of Queenstown as a tourist resort, it was hoped the Minister would see his way to waive the regulation and grant the concession. The second mattei was the establishment of a street slot telephone. This would prove a great convenience to the travelling public, who were frequently found making use of local subscribers’ telephones, thus involving a loss to the department. The fact that the Post Office closed at 5 p.m. intensified the inconvenience to tourists wishing to ring for the bureau. The third request concerned the mail service from Dunedin, via Central Otago. Last winter the Mount Cook Motor Company, which carried the mails between Cromwell and Queenstown on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, offered to bring first-class mail matter from Cromwell on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday nights as well, without extra charge, but the mails on these three nights were not sorted till next morning, so that the advantage of being able to reply to incoming correspondence by the return mail was lost. It was only as the result of persistent representations during the 1 ist few weeks that, in regard to the winter service, the mails were to be sorted on Saturday nights. The Mount Cook Motor Company had generously offered to carry the mails in the ensuing winter free of cost to the Postal Department. and the deputation wished to urge on the Minister that sorting should take place immediately on the arrival of the mail cars.

In replying, Mr Donald said he was sure Mr M’Namara would agree with him in stating that the extension of the telephone hou would be granted straight away in view of the special position in which Queenstown stood as a tourist resort. He did not hold out much hope of the , tabltshment of a street slot telephone. and he could not see how it could po :sibly be conducted at other than a considerable loss. However, the matter would be gone into on his rettirn to Wellington. He might state in passing that, apart from requisitions from the cities, there were already 100 similar applications on the department’s files. As for the request covering the sorting of the mails on tlie arrival of the service cars from Cromwell on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays during the winter months, he thought this could be arranged. It as- very generous of the Mount Cook Motor Company to carry the’mails free o’ charge, is they had done, and as they were prepared to do again. He had personally thanked the local branch manager (Mr W. Eyton), and would make it his business to thank the managing director of the company as soon as opportunitv offered.

The Minister was subsequently escorted ro ind the Government gardens by the Mayor and members of the Borough Council and Progressive League. Mr Donald, who was making his first visit to Queenstown, expressed himself as charmed with what he had been able to see of wondrous Wakatipu in the short time at his disposal. He hoped that circumstances would permit of his making a much longer stay on the occasion of his next visit.

The party left shortly afterwards for the Hermitage. Mount Cook.