a new post office was later built on higher ground with funds raised by the community. initially the national government deemed a new community post office uneconomical, and so decided not to replace one of the town's focal community services which was depended on by the large aged population to cash their weekly pension cheques. this unwelcome decision raised an uproar among the locals, many of whom became overnight activists. this heralded the establishment of the "waikino action committee", which lobbied government and the wider community to have a new community post office constructed. after a bitter campaign the government agreed to build a post office, conditional on the community footing much of the bill – which it did. after the postal services were privatised under rogernomics in the 1990s this postal service was terminated permanently.