CHRISTMAS MAIL.
EXTRA DELIVERIES.
POST OFFICE'S BIG TASK.
AVALANCHE OF GOOD W£LL.
With a flick of the fingers and the accuracy of a crack knife-thrower, a sorter of mails at the Chief Post Office this morning tossed a packet into the correct mail bag. That was at ten o'clock. He had been doing the same thing since seven, but he was only one of hundreds of a staff who since Wednesday have worked 15 hours daily with just a short respite for meals. Letters by the thousand, packets and parcels by the thousand, periodicals by the thousand, either passed over the counters of the city post offices or dropped through slots in pillar boxes, bring forcibly home to the postal employees the fact that Christinas is on the doorstep. This morning the mail room was a hive of industry, and the activities of the staff reminded one of a swarm of ants. There was no spell. Auckland was receiving its Christmas mail, and those whose lot it was to see j that it was delivered could not afford a let-up. Had they ceased for just a few minutes there would have been a mail jam. The Prime Minister, the Hon. M. J. Savage, has frequently said during the past two or three weeks that every man in the Labour party must do his Job with the co-operation of other members. That is how they work in the mail room at the C.P.O. The Sorters' Task. Pigeon holes, mail bags and tables are literally filled with mails. All of it has to be sorted into its group for delivery to its destination, and it does not require any great imagination to realise the amount of work this involves. But this is only part of the work. Once sorted, the bags containing the mail for the suburban areas are placed on trams or motors and dispatched to the. suburban offices where they are again sorted ;md given to the postmen to deliver. It doesn't sound very much, but there is a tremendous amount of work in it.
The Christmas rush is something postal employees can look back upon with a certain amount of pleasure — there is no pleasure in looking forward to it. Whether the mail this Christmas season will be a record cannot bo yet stated, but it is hea/y, so heavy that it has been found necessary to havo j extra deliveries throughout the Auckland metropolitan area. Without this the work could not be coped with, and Aueklanders would be receiving in 198(5 mail they expected in 193-3. Only a day or two of delay, but 193G is next year and sounds a long way off. By half past seven this morning GO bags of mail had been sent out to suburban oflioes. Yesterday, to the seven suburban post oflices 150 bags were for- | warded from the Chief Post Office, and were delivered to residents. Each postman has been given an assistant. Hospital's Big Mail. The biggest mail goes to the Auckland Hospital. Three sacks crammed to the top were sent there this morn- j ing, and two more will go up this after- ! noon. So great has the mail for the hospital grown that for this institution . special bags are provided. The mental I hospital's mail is also a heavy one, and three bags were to be sent there to-day;. \ postal official mentioned this morning that there was no postage on books or papers sent to the mental hospital pro-1 vided they were addressed '-Mental Hospital, Auckland," and not to au individual inmate. Like an endless stream, letters and packets poured through the boxes this mcining, and at the parcels office the rush was as much as the staff could cope with. Heavy as it is, it will be heavier on Monday, when the Aorangi arrives from Vancouver with 1500 bags of general mails. The same day the Monowai and Waitaki arrive from Sydney, and the Marama, via Bluff, from Melbourne. These three mails will be barely cleared before another arrives by the Canadian Victor from Australia on Tuesday, and another is due by the Orama on Boxing Day. On December 27 the last of the Christmas mails from overseas will arrive by the Mariposa, which is bringing. 1541 bags of general mails, 573 bags being for Auckland. Thursday next should see the rush over and the mails back to normal or thereabouts.
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Bibliographic details
Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 302, 21 December 1935, Page 7
Word Count
734CHRISTMAS MAIL. Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 302, 21 December 1935, Page 7
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