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Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 247, 15 January 1889, Page 2

Tub newly-established parcels post does not seem likely to realise the high hopes which many had entertained for it, and bids fair to justify much of the opposition that the proposal at first created. Many tradesmen are of course made to suffer by the new system, but it has acted in another way which meets with the reverse of appreciation. It has been availed of by friends in the old country, especially during the Christmas and New Year season, to give practical proof of their friendship bv sending out small presents of one description and another. These articles, however, have sometimes been “dear” in both semes of the word to the recipients, and they have been inclined to bless the kindness of their friends at home in a degree of which those friends can have no conception. Numerous instances are given of how the post has worked in practice, and it is said that people who have the “misfortune” to have many friends in England will come to regard the post with the same uneasiness that a liberal man has when he goes to a church bazaar with empty pockets. A Wellington man who received a Christmas pudding had to pay charges amounting to within a few pence of 4s, to say nothing of loss of time, before he could obtain possession of the gift. Another person had to pay 4s 6d on some toys that had been sent as a present for the children. The people of England, of course, have no idea of the chargee that their presents entail on the recipients in New Zealand; and the tetter, while wishing to be saved from their friends, must recognise the kindly spirit which haa prompted the offerings, and put a. good a face on the matter as their temperament will allow. -