HOW CHRISTCHURCH GROWS.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14686, 7 June 1913, Page 6

HOW CHRISTCHURCH GROWS.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE POST OFFICE. SOME INTERESTING SIDELIGHTS.) Interesting sidelights on the development of the city aro shown by the rennrkablo expansion that has been coin- on so quietly as to bo practically unnoticed in a department which onu-r* intimately into the life of every citizen-tho Past and Telegraph Div partment. Every ono knows that we have a well-ordered and well-served department in Christchurch. Fow | perhaps realise just how the service thov receive is growing, and what, it involves. To sco letter-carriers speeding cut on motor bikes is taken as a natural sifMi of the times. Few people know tint in every working day Christchnrch letter-carriers cover 1000 miles of del__CooO ircrv miles .a week—the enormous total of something like 1,800,000. t a year! And the deliveries aro creeping right out over the plains, into the ranges', and as the month* go by and tno"'inail delivery system" is further j developed, will cover Canterbury with | a network of service carrying day l»y! day to every home tho messages from j near and far that mea.ns ko much to' them, and carrying them with that I all but entire absence of error that is 1 go remarkable a feature of Post dej velopment. I HOW IT HAS GROWN. j Yesterday our representative setabout ascertaining something of the cxi tension of business that has taken place ' in the Christchurch postal district within the past live or six years. It is only necessary to visit the public telegraph ! the post office savings bank and money order department, or the _ pubho portion of the post office, to realise the pressure that has developed through the growth of business done. : Take the letter delivery each oar. As wo have said, the letter carriers in Christchurch and surrounding districts cover ono thousand miles, letter deliveries by motor-cycle represent an-j other 130 miles. Five years ago the distance carried was about 000 miles. I T>elivery by letter carriers on foot, on ordinary bicycles, and on motor cycles i extends over an area including Newj I Brighton, Harewood, Marshland, Styx, Belfast, Cashmere Hills, Hcathcoto Valley, Hornby, and Teropleton. ' To 'do all this 57 letter car-ri.-rs are required on the road and five or six sorters in the office. And every day. with the exception of Saturdays, there are five deliveries in the business part of tho city. Ten years ago a str.ff of 27 was sufficient to deal with the then service, now motor cycle deliveries servo Hornby, Marshland, and Styx. Then as to facilities for posting. In Christchnrch and suburbs there are 18-1 pillar boxos and twelve suburban post offices. No one needs to go more than 200 or 300 yards to post a letter. THE FERRY MAILS. To ensure the prompt delivery of mails from tho North Island, there is one of those commonsenae arrangements the Department has been noted for. A periodical interchange of sortins; staffs between Christchurch and Wellington is made. This permits the sorting of the mails from the North Island for Christchurch in Wellington, and for Wellington in Christchurch. It arrives ready sorted at the Christchurch office about 7.50 a.m. (when the Maori bring? it), and thd letter carriers nre in possession of their portions of it at 8 a.m.. and are off at once on their first rounds. The same at Wellington. THE RURAL DELIVERIES. The adoption of the rural delivery, tho system that has dono so much for country life in Canada and the United States, lias not yet been general in the ] portion of Canterbury included in the Christchurch postal district, but it has begun. The first district to adopt it was thto Ashley Gorge district, and just recently it has lwen extended to Aylesbury, Grcendale, and Charing Cross districts. The ex-tension of the city and suburban deliveries to Hornby and Templeton is virtually an extension of the rural delivery system. The success of that system depends on everyone having boxes at their gates for the reception of their correspondence, so. that fine may be saved in going from the main road to the residence. These boxes are supplied by tho Department in three sizes, at 9s. 7s, and os—one shilling extra being charged for painting the owner's name on them. In the Ashley Gorge district tho American system has been adopted of placing the boxes on arms to facilitate mail delivery by carriers on horseback, and in that district, also, the Canadian style of box provides for clearance' of posted mail as well as delivery into them. If everyone in the city and suburbs adopted provided boxes on their gates it would reduce the time taken by letter carriers by at least half an hour on each round, and so make further extension ot rounds. On tho Cashmere H lls most of the residents have provided boxes, and, as a result, the Department hns been able to give them an afternoon delivery as well as a morning one. FISH AND FRUIT. i i The transmission of fish through tho Post Office on the system recently introduced has been in operation only in Otago as an experiment, but a great deal of fish is transmitted from Christchurch by ordinary parcels post, chiefly to the sheep stations. Deliveries of fruit tmder -the recentlyadopted system havo not been as great as was antic'pated, although the Department'has gone to considerable ex-j pense and trouble to popularise it, even i to tho extent of posting up at the poat ■ offices prices of fruit and addresses of | growers who would supply. When the | system is better known it will result in ) niutih fruit that now goes to waste ; going to friends and charitable iustitn- j tions. as well as in the extension of | legitimate fruit business. \ AUTOMATIC MACHINES. j The Department is -extending its ; automatic facilities, and to facilitate registration of letters containing con or valuables when the public office is closed, a machine has been provided at the Chk-f Post Office which has not hern . taken advnntago of to the extent hoped. / Tho public continues to post letters , containing valuables without register- I ing them, a pracf'co that the Depart- i mont is particularly anxious should be ; <li>eontiißied, and which should be dis- j continued in tho interests of security, j Stamp vending machines have been ! provided at the Chief Post Office, at ! the tramway shelter in Cathedral j square, at * tho Railway .Station, i and at the High street and i Sydenham Post Office. There is littln j or no excuse for letters being posted j unstampt-d. In tho Post Office Savings Bank the '""home savings bank" system, under which, on payment of one shilling, depositors can obtain a handsome moneybox, the contents of which can only be pot at by the officials at the Savings Bank, has been largely availed of, and is of great value in promot : ng thrift. In Christchurch alone there havo been issued 2703 o f t i lose banks, and in the. remainder of the ChrisU'hurch postal district 1550. In its home in America it i* a common thing to see .such banks on the dcsk s of clerks in offices to re-

ceive their own stray coins md it is I TELEGRAPHIC AND TELEPHONIC. nel o< to fe raphic , an 2 busi- ! "ess of lbp P°«al district has shown ° Wt \ lt k ' „v*™ S ™ V aSt fevv >' oar * "»»t almost ?m wi f ri ,tr - V cenl r e has '«*« Knked up with the general telephone system, i n< "' 'V l "l more recently that the slot telephone lias been introduced and has proved such a great public benefit. Ibe additions to the Christchurch telephone exchange have been so numerous that it is anticipated that m a comparatively brief space of time the present switchboard will bo fully taken up. Indeed, if business increases at the rate it has been increasing during the past fivo years. the question of additional accommodation will become an urgent one. The following figures show the rate at which the telegraph and telephone trunk lines have been extended:— i Miles. Chains. 1907 ... 266 20 ' 190S ... G4I 50 1909 ... 268 40 1911 ... 305 33 t 1912 ... 250 55 The number of telephone connections with the Christchurch exoharge in 1903 was 2975, whilst in 1912 there were 3182 direct connections and 924 extensions—a total of 4106. The growth of the telegraphic business is indicated by the facts that for the year end<xl March 3lst. 1909. tho total number of tcWrrnms of all codes dealt with was 740 864. and the total value /'24.971. whilst, for the year erded MiT-eh 31st. 1 01<) . tho totals were 893,753 and .€3O 2*l.