OVERSEAS MAILS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 128, 2 June 1939, Page 9

OVERSEAS MAILS.

POSTAGE DEFICIENCIES.

IMPROVEMENT I.VDTfATED

After niniltn* of effort to reduce the proportion of under-paid correspondence d.xpatched in mail-, the l'o>t iMlice is iibli- to report a definite If il - provement in the po-ition. Constant lit t r>lll Inn has been called in the I're.-s to the high percentage of correspondence nddri—e<l to the Cnited States of Anieiicii bearing a Id -tamp in-tcad of the international pii»till rate of "ijd, this being the principal dllliciilty following the rev i-ion of oversea-. po-.tngi' rat , . , - whieh took place iiluiost a \car ago. I uderpaid correspondenci , to this country often exceeded a i|Uai'ti>r of the total volume, and thousands of letters have been returned to the eenders ill New Z'abind, the addressees refusing to pay the double dcticicncv cliarge. usually ."Id.

Tho most recent check taken in Auckland nud Wellington, where New Zealand's overseas mails are finally handled. shown that underpaid letters addressed t<i U.S.A. have dropped from 2."> per cent to about IJ per cent, of the total. There i- -till failure to comply fully with the I'd per half ounce rate to Kinpire countries, deficiencies of •' per cent being shown in tlit; latest examination of these mails.

In the otlice of the New Zealand High Comnii--ioucr of London, much Used an centre for corre-pondence of New Zealamlers vi-itinp the Homeland, no fewer than '2<H) letters arriving from the Dominion by one recent mail had to be M.:rcha rued.'call-in;.' a great deal of extriv work to the postal a-ithoriiies and the High CommisMoucr'ji stall".