Story: Mail and couriers

Rural delivery mail

The many small farming settlements in New Zealand have relied on the rural delivery service for over a hundred years. This farmer in the Ruapehu district clears the newspapers, letters and parcels in his rural delivery mailbox, in the 1940s.

Listen to rural delivery man Doug Wilson talk about his 100-kilometre daily run around the Taihape back country in 1985.

Sound file from Radio New Zealand Sound Archives Ngā Taonga Kōrero. Any re-use of this audio is a breach of copyright. To request a copy of the recording, contact Sound Archives Ngā Taonga Kōrero (Spectrum 517-Taihape R.D.2/Reference number CDR724)

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library, Making New Zealand Centennial Collection (PAColl-3060)
Reference: MNZ-2098-1/4; F

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page:

Tim Shoebridge, 'Mail and couriers - Mail in the 20th century', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/speech/23054/rural-delivery-mail (accessed 16 April 2024)

Story by Tim Shoebridge, published 11 Mar 2010