RURAL MAIL.

Waikato Times, Volume 94, Issue 14767, 5 October 1921, Page 6

RURAL MAIL.

(To tho Editor.) Sir, —The only residents who approve of the proposed change in our mail delivery are the guarantors of the old service. Whether we have fallen from the frying-pan into Ihe fire remains to be tested by time. However, there is one point the post-office never gives the country credit for. which should be considered. Take the average farmer; he receives on an average, say, six or even eight letters for every one he sends out. This is all credited to the city post-office; whereas if there were no country it stands to reason there would be no town. Look at the army of typists employed in the citiesAll this correspondence goes into the country l , in a thousand ways. Surely the rural delivery should he credited with the average of the incoming and outgoing. The post-office would soon sec the country route would pay. Then, again, the post-office always clear its mali delivery very promptly, and very few could complain of the manner in which letters are despatched. But what about the outgoing? In our district it is possible for a letter to be three days on the way to Hamilton; consequently more than nine-tenths of the letters are sent by passing friends, cream carts, trade carts, and every conceivable way except by the mail carriers. All these letters are credited to tbe city, which in reality the country would receive were we given the same chance to send our letters promptly. On the face of these facts I think the Government is not treating the country people at all fairly or equitably, and I fear a little trouble will arise before the svstem is properly going. The price being asked—£2 per year—is far too much for many small farmers to pay. It is simply multiplying business, with 2d to pay on every letter and the £2 tax. Farmers will bo content to leave their mail in Hamilton or the larger offices for a week or more- This will mean many important letters will be neglected. The country will grow into such a slip-shod way that farmers will cease to take any interest in The mail. Both trade and the post-office will suffer—l am, etc., CORRESPONDENT. Horsham Downs, Oct. 4, 1921.