A BUSH POST OFFICE.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 24, Issue 19, 11 March 1913, Page 2

A BUSH POST OFFICE.

You may 1 now' a good deal about letter rates, though perhaps you are not well acquainted with a certain postal delivery little heard of in the British Isles. It is merely a New Zealand water race, an obedient raver fashioned by the hands of bushmen sweeping along for twentysix miles, now twinkling with lightsome sparkle in the sunlight, now whispering darkly, stealthily, mysteriously in the depths of the forest shades. Six men stationed at intervals along the route guard the course. The end o' each section is marked by a gra ing, which detains all the flotsam and jetsam borne thus far along, every scrap of paper, every fragment of wood—anything that might he used for scrawling a message upon, is carefully scrutinised by the race-keeper as it is stopped at the gratings. For this is the popular method of commrni'aticn of the bush people along the line of waters. A ship hurriedly inscribed with a stub ol brunt stick has in the past related some pitiful little busb tragedy and been the means of a doctor posting hot foot into the wilds.

The race men themselves send their weekly reports to headquarters enc’oscd in bottles. Everyone along ihe route is looking for messages at Ihe gratings, an I these are speeded on their journey as a sacred duty. Deal h has few terrors to the toilhard ned bushmen in the New Zealand wilds. He dreads only dying alone. The race is the one link that binds him to the outside world.