Mungo

Early overland mails between Auckland & Wellington

During the [eighteen-] forties the Post Office first attempted a mail route overland between Auckland and Wellington. The only feasible route was by the west coast, where foot messengers could avoid the dense bush and tangled undergrowth that covered most of the central parts of the island. The path went from the Waikato Heads to Kawhia Habour, and thence by way of Mokau to New Plymouth. From Wellington the messenger would take mail to Wanganui and on to New Plymouth by way of Hawera (then called Waimate). The Government Gazette makes mention, in September 1843, of the intended monthly service from Auckland to Kawhia Harbour. It was to start on 15 September 1843. Nothing more is heard of it. In 1844 Felton Mathew, then Acting Deputy Postmaster-General, advertised that a fortnightly mail would commence on this route in August of that year. We know a Thomas Scott of Rangitikei (now Bulls) was carrying mail between Wellington and Wanganui for nine months in 1844-45, but it is not clear how much of this overland route was in use at that time. This earliest use of the overland route between Wellington and Auckland did not last long; it had ceased when the British Commissioners visited New Zealand in 1846.

The Wellington-Wanganui section was reopened in 1849. Thomas Scott answered the call for tenders by promising to carry the mail by horsed postmen. They were to go from each end and exchange mail at Ohau "which is as near as possible halfway". A mail was to traverse the whole distance in three and a half days. Thomas Scott's bid was regarded as too high, and the government decided to use police instead.

The whole route between Auckland and Wellington seems to have been put to use by 1856, for Henry King of New Plymouth reported that the mails were arriving and departing "with much regularity". It was a long and difficult journey to go the whole length of the route. If a mail, for example, left Wellington on a Wednesday, it reached Wanganui on Saturday, arriving in New Plymouth the next Friday, reached Mokau the following Monday, and arrived in Auckland, all being well, on Saturday - two and a half weeks after leaving Wellington! One reason for the long schedule was the refusal of the Maoris [sic.], who had become professed Christians, to carry mail on Sunday. It was a day of rest.

- Howard Robinson, A History of the Post Office in New Zealand, Government Printer, Wellington, 1964, p.57-8.  

See also:
Blog: NZ postal rates 1936, 1 January 2018
Blog: Writing to the New Plymouth colony, 28 November 2015 
Blog: The arrival of an English mail in 1853, 26 January 2015
Blog: Posting the empire as the royal word, 9 January 2013

Random stick retrieval consultant

Makara Beach, 17 March 2019

So hold me, Mom, in your electronic arms

Laurie Anderson's 2015 film Heart of a Dog was tonight's Filmsoc selection. Presumably unconnected to the 1925 Mikhail Bulgakov novel of the same name, which I read a few years back. Anyway, it's as good an excuse as any to play this wonderful slice of avant-garde video performance art from 1981. 'O Superman' sounded like the future of music then, and it probably still does today. Despite how esoteric and adventurous this is the single version still reached #2 in the UK pop charts, which is a pleasing reminder that the record-buying public don't always go for the cheap thrills of MOR... just *most* of the time. (Incidentally, 'O Superman' was kept off the UK number 1 spot in October 1981 by either Altered Images' 'Happy Birthday' or Dave Stewart with Barbara Gaskin's cover of 'It's My Party', neither of which has indisputably stood the test of time).

Taranaki sunset

Alexandra Redoubt

Alexandra Redoubt, Pirongia, Waikato