North Australian,
Ipswich and General Advertiser (Ipswich), Tuesday 14 December 1858, page 3
POSTAL IRREGULARITIES. — We are in receipt of letters, by the Thursday's
mail, from subscribers at Calandoon and Dalby, complaining of great
irregularity in the receipt of their papers. The papers are sent regularly from
Ipswich by the Wednesday's mail, packed in parcels, which remain intact until
their arrival at Drayton. Our Calandoon correspondent says, 'I sometimes get
none at all, and then receive three old numbers. The North Australian came very
regularly till the alteration of the Drayton mail, but 'since then we have not
once had it in time.' The communication from Dalby says: 'I am surprised at my
not getting my paper regularly; I had none last week, and such is frequently
the case.'
IRREGULARITIES OF THE BRISBANE POST-OFFICE — The Free Press has
hazarded a defence of the irregularity we complained of in a previous issue, by
which our English letters arriving in Brisbane on a Saturday were not
despatched by the special mail with the Sydney correspondence, but delayed
until Monday, causing a delay in the delivery of thirty six hours. The plea in
extenuation is that the English mails are now sent direct to Brisbane, and
extra labour is imposed on the officials there. That, certainly, may be a valid
excuse for detaining the special mail for an hour or two; but it forms no
defence to our charge of sending a special mail with only a portion of the
letters. Moreover, the newspapers are not now sent by the special mail which
the contractor had hitherto been bound to carry. If the sorting of letters and
papers demanded in more time, let them take it and delay the mail for that
purpose; but it is sheer folly to despatch it with only a part of its contents.
We recollect our contemporary could be hard enough on those who rendered public
service gratuitously, though he is now volunteering a defence for lapses of
duty committed by paid servants.
