Mail delivery

Press, 28 June 1989, Page 16

Mail delivery

Sir, —Today in the mail I received the March issue of a British magazine to which I subscribe. Two of my friends get the same magazine — one in Shirley received his copy on Friday, June 9, and another in Lyttelton on Saturday, June 10. When all were obviously despatched together and arrived in the same U.K. surface mail shipment, why does it take N.Z. Post 10 days longer to deliver an item in one part of Christchurch than another? This variation is not exceptional. Why also, when container ships are four weeks or less in transit from the U.K. to New Zealand, does U.K. surface mail take from to 4 l / 2 months to arrive? If it hasn’t been pointed out before, that’s considerably longer than many sailing ships took for the voyage 100 years ago.—Yours, etc.,

M. SMITH. June 19, 1989.

[The N.Z. Post manager of mails and delivery, Mr P. J. Burke, replies: “As the posting details are not known, there could be a number of reasons for the delivery variations in respect of the magazine in question. However, should M. Smith contact me, I would be happy to investigate the matter further. In respect of the U.K. surface mail, New Zealand Post has no control over the shipping companies’ schedules and few ships actually travel direct to New Zealand from the U.K. The majority have a number of stops on the way, both loading and offloading freight.”]