HEAVY MAILS AT POST OFFICE

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27500, 6 November 1954, Page 6

HEAVY MAILS AT POST OFFICE

PRE CHRISTMAS RUSH STARTING THOUSANDS OF ELECTION CIRCULARS Already there are sighs of the preChristmas rush in the Post Office, which at present is inundated with election circulars. The distribution of these circulars, however, is well in hand and, before election day, more than 500,000 will have been delivered by postmen in the whole of the Christchurch postal district alone. For some time past, the postmen have carried heavy loads of mail and there will be no respite for them until after Christmas. Apart from this, there is pronounced evidence of a quickening tempo in the local mailroom where increased postings of letters, packets, and parcels are being bandied. The postmarking machines which handle letters only are fitted with automatic counting devices which record the volume of envelopes posted daily, and for several days the daily total has exceeded the 100,000 mark. Between now and Christmas the Post Office expects to handle throughout the Dominion at least 50,000,000 articles. Already overseas mails are arriving in large quantities and are being dealt with expeditiously. During this week eight consignments of overseas mails totalling 1558 bags of first and secondclass matter, and 354 bags from the United Kingdom containing a total of 1596 parcels, have been received. During the same period, an outward Christmas dispatch on the Port Napier comprised 50 letter-bags representing over a ton in weight. An added complication this year will be the receipt of Christmas mails from overseas wnich have been held up by the shipping strike in England and are now due to arrive just on Christmas, about the time when the peak of postal traffic is being handled. ■ An appeal for earlier pre-Christmas postings in the past has met with a good response from the public and business firms generally. There is good reason for such an appeal, and it is confidently expected that the re-’ sponse will assist materially in easing the load of the Post Office between now and Christmas.