Last updated 11:33, Saturday, 05 April 2008

“THIS Federation brings to the notice of the Postmaster General the serious hardship now caused by the absence of adequate post office services in rural districts, and considers that the refusal of the Government to grant reasonable pay and facilities to rural PO staff is largely responsible, and asks for this whole matter to be promptly reconsidered.”

This was a motion passed by the Cumberland Federation of Women’s Institutes at their Spring Conference. It was passed unanimously. But then many women at the meeting had experience of living in small villages, miles from anywhere.

They were convinced that the powers-that-be down in London had no idea what it was like to live “in a county of small hamlets.”

The Loweswater delegate, Mrs Robinson, told how she’d lived in a village with no Post Office.

She listed some of the obvious drawbacks. “Old age pensioners who had to travel miles to draw their pensions; the weary waiting, sometimes in hail, in snow, for the postman, to hand over parcels and money for stamps . . . and telegrams arriving late.”

They were all agreed. Villages needed post offices. After all, as individuals they were just as entitled to having access to such a facility as people who lived in the cities.

Postmistresses, they felt, deserved more money. More than the 25 shillings a week they were getting from the Government, which also didn’t pick up the bill for the rates, but, to quote a Mrs Charters, a Postmaster’s wife from Portinscale, they “did give you one pen and a bottle of ink.”

She claimed that all new postmistresses should start at the flat rate of £2 10s a week.

Not too much money, one might think. By today’s standards, no.

But this all happened back in 1947 and was just one of the many issues tackled by the delegates at their meeting in Workington. Save our rural post offices! In 1947. Over 60 years ago!

Do you ever get that “I have been here before” feeling? I know the wheel can often turn full circle, but lately it’s been whizzing round at break neck speed.

New initiatives (old ideas with fancy new names) are announced, seemingly, weekly. We seem to be living in an age of Government by instant impulse.

Like all the various utterances from politicians about “global warming” and “saving the planet.” We’ve all got to be active conservationists now.

There’s talk of making us have slop buckets for kitchen leftovers. What’s next? At least the threat of foot and mouth disease will have knocked any idea of our having pig swill buckets on the head.

But all we’ve got to do is to delve into the past to see what might be round the corner.

What about this advert from The West Cumberland Times of 1943, headed “The Law and Your Dustbin.” It pointed out that it was illegal to: Destroy and burn waste paper, or dispose of it other than making it available for collection. And it was absolutely forbidden to put waste paper in the bin.

It was also forbidden to “Destroy, throw away or abandon any rag, rope or string, or mix it with any other refuse awaiting collection.” The same rules applied to rubber.

Another advert asked “is your house slacking?” in the salvage effort. It gave examples of salvageable items under the heading “What do I do?”

Answer: “I save metal – food cans, bottle tops, kitchen utensils damaged beyond repair, and any other metal articles I can spare.”

And “I save rubber – every scrap is urgently needed” Also “I save bones – first cleaning them and drying them.”

Why bones? A later advert, entitled “New Mother Hubbard” explained: “The dogs of war need an endless supply of bones, for explosive, glue, feeding stuffs and fertilizers.”

It added “Valuable shipping must be used to import bones from abroad.”

For salvage novices it gave instructions how to save all bones, except fish bones, by removing “all meat and gristle, and drying the bones before a fire or on the kitchen boiler, or in the oven – utilising the waste heat after cooking.”

There were more “bone salvage” instructions, but I’ll give them a miss.

We haven’t quite got there – yet. But watch this space!