The Uninitiated May Think That The First Was Sent Out By Mistake And That
The Second Was Too Vaguely Addressed;
But both letters went into the rack
to await delivery, for our faith in the wisdom of our Postal Department
Was great; it makes no mistakes, and to it - in a land where everybody
knows everybody else, and all his business, and where it has taken
him - an address could never be too vague. The bush-folk love to say that
when it opened out its swag in the Territory it found red tape had been
forgotten, but having a surplus supply of common sense on hand, it
decided to use that in its place.
And so it would seem. "Down South" envelopes are laboriously addressed
with the names of stations and vias here and vias there; and throughout
the Territory men move hither and thither by compulsion or free-will
giving never a thought to an address; while the Department, knowing the
ways of its people, delivers its letters in spite of, not because of,
these addresses. It reads only the name of the man that heads the
address of his letters and sends the letters to where that man happens to
be. Provided it has been clearly stated which Jones is meant the
Department will see to the rest, although it is wise to add Northern
Territory for the guidance of Post Offices "Down South." "Jones
travelling with cattle for Wave Will," reads the Department; and that
gossiping friendly wire reporting Jones as "just leaving the Powell," the
letter lies in the Fizzer's loose-bag until he runs into Jones's mob; or
a mail coming in for Jones, Victoria River, when this Jones is on the
point of sailing for a trip south, his mail is delivered on shipboard;
and as the Department goes on with its work, letters for east go west,
and for west go south - in mail-bags, loose-bags, travellers' pockets or
per black boy - each one direct to the bush-folk as a migrating bird to
its destination.
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