Postal Mistakes

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 698, 20 October 1909, Page 6

Postal Mistakes

Some peculiar mistakes and mishaps sometimes take place in connection with letters and property dealt with by the Post Office. Extraordinary carelessness on the part of people posting letters.or parcels is uot, unhappily, uncommon. As illustrating how the department is often blamed wrongfully for the loss of articles passing through the Post Office, it is mentioned in the annual report of the New Zealand Post and Telegraph Department that a postal packet containing six watches was wrongfully delivered at a boarding-house, owing to the address being so badly written that it was believed to be intended for a person who resided there. Whilst the packet was awaiting disposal at the boardiDg-house a friend of the supposed addressee noticed it, and readdressed it to him, and it was only when the article was passing through the Post Office a second time that the rightful owner was identified, and delivery effected after a delay of five mouths. A letter, unregistered, from Ohristchurch to Wellington containing £425 in bank notes was discovered open in the post. A case occuned at Palmerslon on June 25th, 1908, of the abstracting of a letter from the posting box by a starling. The occurrence was witnessed by a passer-by. Another similar case was reported from Palmerston North, where, to prevent further depredations, a hinged flap was fixed to the aperture of the box.