LETTER-CARRIERS' UNIFORM.

Evening Post, Volume LIII, Issue 15, 19 January 1897, Page 2

LETTER-CARRIERS' UNIFORM.

TO THE EDITOB. Sib-jAHow me the use of your paper to point out what is considered by many persons a portion of the "Govern ment red tape comfort" which points directly to the dress of the Post Office letter-carriers. In the extremely hot weather which has visited us for two months, the letter-carriers have been compelled to adopt the rules laid down by the service — that is, to wear their all-the-year-round dress, closely buttoned up tight, so that the men are in a constant bath, not only reducing their strength, but their comfort while climbing up 50 or 80 steps to what are known as "sky parlours," at an altitude much nearer the moon than the general run of houses — for instance, such places as Oriental Bay, &c. During my travelling about the city I have noticed these postmen carrying large bags filled with papers and letters, and pitied them, under the burning sun/while their whole suits would be wringing wet with perspiration. Why could not the men be furnished with black alpaca coats and straw hats ? Of course the Government would say that would be against regulation uniform— they must not even unloose their coats — but uniformity can go too far, the same as it did in the Crimea, where every soldier had to turn out clean shaved and with boots nicely blacked. I wonder if these orders were carried out by someone who had blundered, or through a misunderstanding from the Horse Guards. ■ I am, io., A Canvasses. Wellington, 19th January.