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Wellington Independent, Volume XXII, Issue 2659, 9 April 1868, Page 3

We beg respectfully to call the attention of the Chief Postmaster in this Province, to the extraordinary and unsatisfactory manner in whtch the mails are delivered in the Kaiwarra and Porirua Districts. A person named Joseph Angell, who is a small farmer on Tawa • Flat, receives a salary for carrying the mails between the PoriruaFerry and Wellington, three times a week. His plan of proceeding is exceedingly singular. He comes into Wellington on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday of each week, and returns on the same day, carrying the mails with him each way. Now as Angell resides only ten miles from town, it would be perfectly practicable for him, by starting at a reasonably early hour, to bring in his small budget, receive the return mails and deliver them the same day as far as the Ferry Inn by five o'clock at night. It is not a hard task either for horse or rider, to manage a distance of twenty -four miles between seven o'clock in the morning and five o'clock at night, allowing a fair time for stoppages and the delivery of letters. But Mr Angell and his mare — the latter being a marvel of age, low condition, and slowness — both belong to the old school and won't be hurried on any account whatsoever. Mr Angell being of opinion " that if the early bird catches the worm, he worm was a precious fool to be abroad before it," usually lets the day be well warmed before he gets up. Breakfast and preliminary preparations occupy a considerable time, so it is often after mid-day before he starts on his official journey, with Her Majesty's Mails. We don't 'know how often the horse or rider may be baited during the ten miles journey to town, but tho period at which he usually makes an appearance is four o'clock in tho afternoon. Then he gets the mails, mounts old "Meg" and starts homewards about six o'clock. Neither " Meg" nor her master care to be put out of the even tenor of their way, and so the Johnsonville and Tawa Flat people must wait patiently for their letters till they get them. Sometimes they do get them the same night, if they happen to be still out of bed as the ancient postman passes ; but if they are not, then the delivery is made on the return journey. A day or so more or less is of no moment in the estimation of Mr Angell. The sottlers in those districts may anxiously expect some important letters, or they may eagerly await the receipt of their newspapers, but Angell is not one whit disquieted thereat. He sleeps peacefully through the morning and jogs on gently through the night,

content to know that his duty will be fulfilled easily if he only takes long enough to perform it. But, if the case of the Johnsonville and Tawa Plat settlers isbad enough, that of those residing in Porirua is still worse. It is a fixed rule with Mr Angell and the old mare that they shall never on any consideration whatsoever, j proceed further than their own quarters on the night of the return journey. Now, as we said before, Mr Angell's residence is four miles on the Wellington side of the Ferry, so that the settlers residingbetween the two places don't get their letters or papers that night at all. The delivery of these is another day's work for " Meg" and her master. Kefreshed by a lengthened rest, both start on the following day, and by almost superhuman and superequine efforts contrive to cover the four miles, reach the ferry, and deliver the letters. Not being utterly exhausted by this severe ride, they sometimes also contrive to visit the house of the Resident Magistrate, some little distance round the Bay, and this being accomplished there is a late journey home. Next day another visit is made to Wellington in the jog trot style we have already described. The result of this admirable system of Postal delivery is, that while a few of the settlers get their letters and papers at a late hour of the day on which they have been received from the Wellington Head Office, the majority of them receive theirs on the following afternoon, about twenty-seven hours after they have been given into the charge of the Postman. It thus takes 27 hours to deliver letters when the distance to be travelled is little over 14 miles. And this is in the days of Cobb and the Electric Telegraph ! Our table is covered with the letters of indignant correspondents, complaining of this. One of them writes " that the manner in which the letter carrier performs the service be tween Wellington and the Porirua Perry, has become almost unbearable." "The case," he adds, '" is this — It takes practically as long to deliver letters and papers at Porirua, 14 miles from Wellington, as it does to deliver them at Wanganui, a distance of 120 miles. Then at Paikakariki, Waikanae, and Otaki, places varying from 30 to 57 miles up the coast, the mail delivery is always early the same afternoon uf starting from Wellington, while we at Porirua have sometimes to wait 24 hours later." Certainly our correspondents have a right to complain of such a state of affairs, and we therefore beg that the Chief Postmaster, Mr Hoggard, will enquire into it with a view to its amendment. No person but one who is frequently in the habit of visiting the Porirua district, can fully appreciate the discontent which the settlers feel at the manner in which the present letter carrier does his duty. Tired of ineffectual complaints and useless remonstrances, they have, we are informed, tried to mend the postman's manners by punching his head. Now we put it to the Postal authorities if it is right that such a state of affairs should be permitted to continue any longer. If a postman is either unable or unwilling to do his duty, he should be dismissed. It is not very creditable that a carrier of Her Majesty's mails should need his eyes blackened to enable him to see what is his duty, nor that he should, by his dilatoriness, so exasperate the settlers as to render such strong measures necessary. In truth the Porirua postal system' is a complete burlesque, and the sooner it is altered the better. It is money thrown away to pay for the delivery of letters when the time occupied in the work is threefold what it should be. We trust, therefore, that some enquiry will be made into the matter, and that the present letter carrier will either be obliged to do his work in reasonable time, or that some one else will be employed in his stead.