FIRST PARCEL POST FROM ENGLAND

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 66, 10 December 1938, Page 7

FIRST PARCEL POST FROM ENGLAND

Christmas Fifty Years Ago

GROWTH OF TRAFFIC

SINCE 1888

It is just 50 years ago this Christmas since New Zealanders were first able to receive a parcel through the post from the Homeland. A special Act of Parliament had to be passed to authorize this postal innovation. The exchange of parcel mails between this country and overseas began under the authority of the Post Office (Foreign Parcels) Act, 1888, which gave the Postmaster-Gen-eral power to enter into agreements with other postal authorities for the conveyance of foreign parcels under and subject to the terms of the Act. A number of regulations were made prescribing the rates of postage, the dimensions of parcels and the mode of packing, and making provision for other miscellaneous matters. Some of that legislation is in force today. Before the Act was actually passed, negotiations were put in train for an early exchange of parcels, the desire being to afford residents of the United Kingdom the opportunity of forwarding parcels in time to reach the colony by Christmas of 1888. The first parcel was dispatched from London on November 16, 1888. and delivered in the colony on December 30. “One thousand parcels were received by this mail,” states the departmental report of 1889, “a number far in excess of the most sanguine estimate. It had originally been determined that only one parcel mail by each steamer should be dispatched by the London Post Office, but as the number of parcels was far larger than contemplated, it was decided that separate mails should be made up for each of the four main centres.” Rate of Postage 1/6. The first parcel mail from the colony for London was dispatched on Dtwmber 27, 1888, the rate of postage being 1/0 for a parcel not exceeding 21b. and 9d. for each additional pound or fraction up to a maximum of 111 b. Within two years the parcel post system was extended via London to many other countries.

Any doubts as to the value of this facility were soon dispelled by the increase in volume of the traffic handled. In 1889, 2452 parcels were forwarded from New Zealand to overseas countries, and 13,3,35 were received. In 1900, 10,916 parcels were dispatched overseas, and 34.236 were received.

Today the parcels post is used for the importation of a large variety of goods and a system of insurance facilitates the safe transport of valuable products. The overseas parcels post business has always shown a large balance of imports over exports, last year’s dispatches totalling 45,000, GOO. whereas parcels received were 197,136.