post-office being abolished, the St. Leonards people would receive their letters as early and be otherwise served as well as before. He also stated that visitors did not know why they did not get letters at the proper time, and the St. Leonards people did not tell them why. It had also been put forth as an argument that the postal district was ill-defined. Now, as all the mails, except one, came by railway trains which deposited the St. Leonards bags at the St. Leonards station before the Hastings bags arrived at their destination, the work of “sorting” could be commenced immediately; whereas, if there were no general office at St. Leonards, the bags would be carried through to Hastings, and the letters taken back to St. Leonards by some more cumbrous or less rapid means. This would certainly be a retrograde step, and almost as surely a great inconvenience to the would-be callers at a general office (and they were many) to give instructions, to make enquiries, or for other purposes. Then, as to the posting of letters, Mr. Gausden showed that at Brighton, where there was only one general office, letters had to be posted at the receiving houses at from one hour to three hours before the closing of the box at the head office. But he need not have gone so far as Brighton to disprove the assertion that after the change the St. Leonards people would be able to post their letters nearly as late as before. Mr. Gausden might have found the necessary support of his contra-argument at home, where the letter-boxes closed at all the receiving houses one hour and 45 minutes before the one at the general office. The following information, tabulated from the official notices, and clipped from the St. Leonards Gazette, will show the fallacy of Mr. Ginner’s statements.
Mr. Howell, while supporting Mr. Gausden’s views, referred to the inconvenience experienced by the inhabitants of the eastern part of Hastings after the removal of the Hastings chief office from George street to Wellington place. The annexed table shows that instead of posting for the night mail at 9.45 as was possible before the removal, the change necessitated the putting letters into the box at the substituted receiving house at not later than 8pm. This again shows the absurdity of Mr. Ginner’s assertion that the abolition of the St. Leonards office would make little or no difference in the time of posting letters. Even under existing conditions, it will be seen that for all mails except the second morning out-mail -
