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POSTAL HISTORY OF THE MANAWATU

(extract from by R.M.Startup)

Introduction of the Railway Service Mail

The years 1873-1875 saw major advancement in the district. In August 1873 a horse-drawn tramway was opened between Foxton and Palmerston North. In the summer of 1873-74 the Colonists and Emmigrants Aid Society purchased and commenced to open the Manchester Block based on Feilding (where the post office was opened 1 October 1874), and in 1875 the Upper Manawatu bridge was opened allowing coach communication with Hawkes Bay. Palmerston North was now receiving mails twice weekly from Wellington and weekly from Napier.

The tramway from Foxton to Palmerston North was replaced in April 1876 by a railway and this was extended from Palmerston North to Wanganui in May 1878. Mails now came from Wellington by daily coach to Foxton, and from thence by rail. It was not until 1886 when the Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company opened their railway to Longburn where it joined the Government Foxton-Wanganui line, that mails came direct from Wellington by rail.

During the late 1870s and the 1880s there was steady growth as the heavy bush was milled or cleared and farms opened up. The arrival of the railway from Wellington saw farmlands opened up either side of the line. In the 1890s with the Government encouraging the “small” settler, bush country to the north of the Manchester Block, as well as in the east beyond the gorges and ranges, east of Dannevirke and Pahiatua,was rapidly taken up by a whole series of settlement associations and co-operatives. With the opening of the “back-blocks” further postal services were required and a network of mail routes soon marked through often rugged country to some scores of homes and small stores which became the local post office.

Though the country roads could often be quagmires or mud in the winter months and were narrow twisting and tumbling over the hills and valleys, the railway now carried much of the freight, passengers and mails on the main routes. Railway travelling post offices attached to the passenger trains sorted the mails as they travelled; three services came into the district, from Wanganui, Napier and Wellington, while in 1909 the Wellington-Auckland Main Trunk R.T.P.O ran daily through the district. From the many railway stations, where often the stationmaster was also postmaster, the mails were sent out into the country by stage coach, dray or packhorse.