GIFTS GO ASTRAY

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22317, 3 February 1938, Page 16

GIFTS GO ASTRAY

HUNDREDS IN DEAD LETTER OFFICE RESULTS OF FORGETFULNESS One of the Christmas rushes of the | Post and Telegraph Department is in the Dead Letter Office at the General Post Office. This division has just settled down to its normal routine of dealing with the difficulties caused by forgetfulness in the sending of correspondence and postal packets. On the I average, the number of such problems for the postmen averages 50 a day over the whole year. After the Christmas season, when . the Post Office deals with the exchange of hundreds of thousands of goodwill tokens, there is accumulated in the Dead Letter Office a large and varigated pile of presents which have ' failed to reach their destinations. Handkerchiefs hurriedly packed and inadequately addressed are in pigeonholes, and it is estimated that there are at least between 1500 and 2000. Small articles of clothing, powder compacts, ties, and socks are also numerous, and there is even a strong pair of men’s, boots. The number of packets posted without any address or indication of the sender suggests that, during the rush of Christmas shopping, some customers of the Post Office carry their parcels direct from the shop to the nearest post office, where the post boxes remind them of a future duty which they only partly perform. •They put on some stamps, but forget to add an address. The only address available to the mail staffs is the Dead Letter Office, Wellington. Subsequent • inquiries occasionally lead to recovery of the,package by the sender; but, if there is any kind of address, the postmen take a good deal of trouble to secure delivery. If they fail, the Dead Letter Office opens the parcel in the hope of discovering some clue; to the sender. Notes simply signed “From Auntie and Uncle” do not help, but if an address is added the present will at least get back to the sender. Post office desks also provide a fair quota of the Dead Letter Office accumulation, for there are many fountain pens, some umbrellas, gloves, and baskets which have come from this quarter.