DOMINION POST OFFICE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19099, 21 August 1936, Page 14

DOMINION POST OFFICE

SERVICES IN IS6B POSTAL GUIDES COMPARED ~ A new edition of the Post and l’eiegraph Guide requires 5z7 pages to describe the wide range of the department's services, covering postal, money - order, savings-bank, radio communication, inland and overseas telegrams, and telephones. The literary contents are too highly compressed to he readable, lmt they are extremely informative, and what is more interesting to the general reader in a comparison between this G-uide and the first one issued by the Post Office in July, 1868! The infant post office of the colony was able to include within a modest 55-page Guide all its regulations, mail dates, the post offices of the country, and all charges. To-day the much extended Guide has to be supplemented with' other publications, including a complete directory to the air-mail services.

Auckland, according to the list of 1808, could only communicate by telegraph as far south at Kihikilii — ICO miles. There were only 40 telegraph offices altogether, and the South Island had a majority. Telegrams were charged according to distance, and the West Coast of the South Island must have been reached by a round-about route judging by the charge of 7d per word for messages from Dunedin. to Hokitika, or 3jd to the same point from Wellington. Auckland had no telegraph outlets to these points. The charges for letters showed that Id was the rate for delivery of halfounce letters in the towns. 2d for what was called a “country” letter and 5d for inter-provincial communicationsOverseas mails were carried for 6<l the half-ounce to Australia and the United Kingdom {via Panama or Suez!, bid it the overland route from .Marseilles was used, giving a saving of time of several days to England, the charge was llld. It was possivle in this early Guide to include details of all the mail services within the colony, although this now requires a separate publication of its own.