New Zealand postal service changes leave rural communities disappointed
Changes to New Zealand’s postal service has left rural communities disappointed.
OPINION: This old mutt understands that NZ Post will soon no longer be delivering to rural addresses on Saturdays.
From the end of June, there will be no newspaper and parcel deliveries to RD addresses on Saturdays, with the exception of 17 rural delivery runs that will be phased out by June 2025.
According to NZ Post “Saturday services to rural areas are not commercially viable. We deliver very low volumes of items on these days, and it costs us more to deliver on Saturdays than we earn from the products we deliver”.
So, this means, from the end of June, there will be no Saturday newspapers delivered to any rural addresses around the country.
A sad sign of the times and a big worry for those newspaper companies who put out a big Saturday editions.
Thankfully, Rural News is delivered on a Monday, so no worries for our loyal readers keeping up with all the relevant news.
Matt McRae, a farmer from Mokoreta in Southland who runs a sheep, beef and dairy support business alongside a sheep stud, has been elected to the Beef +Lamb NZ Board as a farmer director.
Ravensdown's next evolution in smart farming technology, HawkEye Pro, was awarded the Technology Section Award at the Southern Field Days Farm Innovation Awards in February 2026.
While mariners may recognise a “dog watch” as a two-hour shift on a ship, the Good Dog Work Watch is quite a different concept and the clever creation of Southland siblings Grace (9) and Archer Brown (7), both pupils at Riverton Primary School.
Philip and Lyneyre Hooper of the Hoopman Family Trust have tonight been named the Taranaki Regional Supreme Winners at the Ballance Farm Environment Awards.
We are not a bunch of sky cowboys. That was one of the key messages from the chairperson of the NZ Agricultural Aviation Association (NZAAA) Kent Weir, speaking at an education day at Feilding aerodrome for 25 policymakers and regulators from central and local government and other rural professionals.
New Zealand's dairy and beef industries say they welcome the announcement that the Government will invest $10.49 million in the Dairy Beef Opportunities (DBO) programme.

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