CHRISTMAS MAIL

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 281, 27 November 1941, Page 4

CHRISTMAS MAIL

POST OFFICE PLANS

WAR STAFFING PROBLEMS

Plans to cope with a great volume of mail and telegrams during the fortnight preceding Christmas, and particularly in the final week, are now being made by the authorities at the Auckland Chief Post Office. Staffs will be augmented, accommodation increased, and a temporary mail room brought into use.

[ Well over 100 youths, around 16 or 17 years of age, will be enlisted as temporary assistants to accompany heavily burdened postmen on their rounds in the city and suburbs, and telegraph linesmen detached from their ordinary duties will also share in the delivery of mails.

Special staffing arrangements are being made inside the post office to deal with the rush of letters, packets, parcels and telegrams, but it was indicated to-day that the working of long hours would be unavoidable because of the loss of many officers who had joined the forces. In this respect the position would be more difficult than a year ago.

In the telegraphic branch the traffic is expected to be very heavy, especially in the last three days. The telegraph staffs will be increased as far as possible by bringing in operators from suburban offices, but the scope for such transfers will be limited, due to the effects of the war on the manpower position. In the addressing and copying of telegrams, temporary typists will be employed.

Greetings messages to memoers of the armed forces overseas are expected to run into many thousands and to be much more numerous than in the last Christmas rush, because large numbers of men have left the Dominion during the past 12 months. A minimum charge of 2/6 will operate, and it will be necessary for the public to assist the Department in dealing with the flow by handing in their messages early.