POST OFFICE LOAFERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 206, 28 August 1920, Page 14

POST OFFICE LOAFERS.

TAKE UP ROOM AND TRIFLES. THE LAW o_\* THEIR TRACK. A regulation lias just been gazetted providing that any person who loiters in & posi olliee or telegraph office shall be li.ible to a fine of £5, and may be ejected. A certain number of loiterers will always be found round about tlie front of the Auckland Post Office. It is a convenient place for keeping appointments. The steps make a fine vantage point from wihich to pick out a person in the crowds circulating in that wide part of the principal thoroughfare which at this spot is really more of a '"place" than n street. And for those who do not like the publicity of the steps, the broad pillars of the big entrance hall nre as good cover ns even a scout could desire. This class of loiterer can lie seen any day nnd at any time of the day, and particularly on wet days. " " Inside the office there are tlie usual trying people who have nothing to do : and nil day to do it in. They meet an f old friend, who also happens to be Inlying stamps or sending ft telegram, anil the pair immediately have a nice comfortable ciliat about family and cognate matters, while the man in a hurry ihas to steer a course round the verbose suburbanites. Then there is the person who monopolises one of those tiny com- i partments where they liave the pencils tied to t,lie dc<_<s. Tlie original use of j the lots of little desks was for the addressing of post and letter cards, or . writing out telegrams, but some people ' seem to make the post oflice ft home away from home. There is about some post offices another sort of loiterer which is possibly the one w.hieh the new regulation is aimed at. and that is the picker up of odds and ends. Lota of j things from gold watches down to I pocket handkerchiefs have been left on those little writing cuddies, by people to I whom the composition of a letter is a . matter of some mental stress, und re- i quires more concentration than some of us are accustomed to associate with the , art. j A certain class of loiterer seems to lie in wait for these forgetful corres- ' pondents, and of course the bigger tbe j post office and the more congested the , accommodation the better this sort of person thrives. No doubt the new regulation will mean that more supervision is to be paid to the people who frequent post offices, and when this liocoitles ■known it will have an excellent effect on the individuals who pick up ownerless ' fountain-pens, parcels and other thintrs ' which have been orphaned durinsr the difficult process of literary incubation iby these correspondents who use the post office as a writing room.