Arizona weekly citizen., 1882-06-25
POSTAL SERVICE.
,nu.e of fhr IrreguIaritIe.

The solution of the Sonora mail diff
 culties are to be found. the postmaster
 thinks, in the looseness of the Sonora
 mail system, and in the general apathy
 of the Mexican Government to all mat
 ters relating to the mail service ID that
 State, or at least that part of 1t passing
 between the two countries. There
 would not, said Mr. Corbett, be any legalized mail service between Arizona
 and Sonora at the present time, were It
 not for the efforts of citizens in Tucson
 using their influence through the depart
 ment at Washington, on the Govern
 ment of Mexico. Not more than year
 ago the Sonora uail servlce was dlscon-
 iinued entirely, under the pretext that
 there was no appropriation for that pur-
 pose and the stage line refused to carry
 1t longer without recompense- For
 month or more there was no interchange
 of mails. At the request of the United
 States Government the service was
 again renewed. Magdalena was agreed
 upon as a distributing point for all
 Sonora, and the postofiice at Calabasas
 was by terms of the same agreement des-
 ignated as the depository Of the mails be-
 tween the two countries. The mail
 sack from each country having as their
 initial starting points, Magdalena on
 the one side and Tucson on the other,
 and as there were not to be any way or
 intermediate stations, the mails were to go sacked, tied, sealed and stamped with the understanding that they be not opened until their ar rival at either of the mailing and distributing points named. Calabasas as said, was agreed upon as an exchange depository, that being the meeting point of the two contracting lines and where each one called for and delivered his mail. The postmasteiat that place has ! nothing whatever to do with the passing | mails inasmuch as he does not open l them, but receives and delivers them | sealed. He has no authority to do any thing with them other than receive | them when delivered and deliver them | when called for. Under orders from | Washington the mails leave here with ] unfailing regularity on Mondays and | Fridays of each week, and since the | schedule under which the contractors | now carry them, they lave not missed | day. The hours for their arrivals and | departures are fixed, not only for Tucson but at Calabasas also and the carrying contractor is bound under penalty to deliver them according to schedule time. The law on this side, MT. Corbett says, has, in every sense, been fully complied with, but not so, so far as can be learned, with the Sonora authorities. In the first place they do not seal their sacks and in the second place they have not, or if they have, they do not keep it, any stated time for the delivery of their mail at Calabasas, hence the impossibil- ty of making connections with them al he place named. If they will fix on my designated time for their arrivals md departures, the office here will petition the Department to 'hange our time m conformity with [ and thus abolish if possible the ten md fifteen days delay complained Of.
 t is related on good authority that an American gentleman living in Sonora ut several letters in the Magdalena ostoiice for transmission to this lace. In the course ot a week after yards he learned that his letters were till in that office, and on making in- uiry as to the cause, ascertained that he postmaster was away, and his wife, n old lady, was in charge. She did not now which way the letters were to go, o, rather than send them in a wrong ] Erection, thought 1t best to keep them i'll her husbands return. In view Of C uch things the cause of the delays are, IT. Corbett believes, very easily placed.