POSTAL DELAYS AND THE DISTRICT MESSENGER QUESTION.
[TO TII2 EDITOR OF TRZ "SPECTATOR:1
Sin,—I have a small country house, less than thirty miles from London and within two and a half miles of the Eden Bridge Station on the South-Eastern line, and of Eden Bridge Town Station on the Brighton line. I look forward to reading the Spectator when in the country for the week-end. It is sup- plied by a newsagent in Kensington, who invariably poets it —as appears by the postmark—at 9.15 a.m. on Saturdays. Letters are delivered in my hamlet (Four Elms) on Saturday evening, and occasionally the Spectator arrives by that post; but more commonly it does not, but comes by a post of which the mark is 4.15 on Sunday morning at Eden Bridge, and as there is no Sunday delivery at Four Elms I receive the Spectator on Monday morning just as I am returning to London. I have written to the Post Office people about this until I am tired. I receive civil answers and expressions of regret, and on the last occasion when I wrote the paper for some weeks subsequently came at the proper time, but then the Saturday non-delivery recurred, and I never now get it until the Monday. I enclose the wrapper which I received
last Monday morning. As I have aaid, I am tired of writing to the Post Office, and in the hope of doing better I write to you. Is it not too bad that at a hamlet within thirty miles of London, having numerous trains on two railways to a village about two miles off, a paper posted at 9.15 a.m. cannot be delivered (by the Post Office) at 7 p.m. ? Ten hours for thirty miles. A District Messenger could walk it in the time. Apropos of the District Messenger question. On what possible grounds are the Post Office people entitled to extract 10 per cent. of the gross receipts of this unhappy company ? I presume my servant, whom I engage by the month, is entitled to carry letters for me, if I so choose to employ him. I should imagine if I hired him by the day, I am equally entitled to employ him in cleaning my plate, or in going messages, bearing parcels or letters. I also suppose a House Brigade boy might be used by me for blacking boots or for carrying a letter ; if these things be so, then why, if I hire a District Messenger for a quarter of an hour, is he not for that period my servant, and why am I forbidden to use him in any way that is most convenient to me ? When I was a boy, now, alas ! some seventy years ago, I lived in Finch Lane, Cornhill, and I used to see seated on a bench at the north-east corner of the old Royal Exchange a number of men known as ticket porters. These were absolutely trustworthy men, and were employed by the bankers and merchants to deliver letters or parcels, and were hired for the job just as a District Messenger is hired, and I never heard it suggested that they needed a Post Office license. I suppose the title of the company, "District Messenger," excited the attention and the cupidity of the Post Office. The company should have called themselves the "Short Service Supply Company," or the "Temporary Help League," or some such title suggestive of the letting-out of servants, and not of- delivering messages or 5 Great George Street, Westminster, S. W.
[We are extremely sorry that Sir Frederick Bramwell should have such difficulty with the delivery of his paper, though we regret to say we are helpless in the matter. We agree generally with what he says as to the District Messenger question. Public Departments seem incapable of bearing anything in the nature of competition, however slight. Yet, in truth, what they want is more, not less, rivalry, to render them efficient in serving public needs.—En. Spectator.)
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