Closing down !

News that Australia's biggest Internet cafe -a three hundred terminal outlet in Castlereagh street, Sydney - is closing should come as no surprise. It was popular with tourists and others not able to access their home computers - before the advent of mobile phones that enabled internet access. Technology improvements bring change. It is steadily going on around us and it will accelerate in the years ahead. The humble pay-phone in a phone box in the street - or on the wall in a public building is starting to disappear. Patronage has fallen to the extent that the coins collected often do not even cover the cost of collecting them and servicing the phones - which become targets of vandals. People are protesting at the closure of suburban post offices. The use of stamps and letters is in sharp decline as we learn to pay our bills by fund transfer or use internet banking - and suppliers are more and more billing us through our computers to avoid stamp and mailing costs. The day is fast approaching when the post office will be a singular institution in the centre of a city, with few if any suburban sites remaining. The only hope of survival for the network would be a decision by the government to convert the system to a bank. It seems to be a reflex action to protest when some service is withdrawn. But then - is was only a few decades ago when every town and village had a horse stable on main street - and the services of a blacksmith nearby. We live in ever changing times !