ABSENT-MINDED OR CARELESS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 153, 28 June 1912, Page 7

ABSENT-MINDED OR CARELESS

AS SHOWN BY THE DEAD LETTER OFFICE. That portion of th© Post and Telegraph, report dealing -with missing letters is always an interesting feature of the annual statement. During the year ended 31st Match, the undermentioned articles of value were found in lettr-s in th© Dead Letter Office, and returned to th© senders where practicable : 732 post-office orders, £1945 13s sd ; 62 bank drafts, £6306 55; 806 cheques, £7996 Is; 24 dividend-warrants, £115 16s Id; 13 promissory notes, £657 Is 8d j postal notes, £794 9s 6d; British postal orders, £91 lls 6d ; stamps, £61 3s 4£d ; banknotes, £480; geld, £61 10s; silver and copper, £17 8s ll^d ; representing a total of £18,527 0s 6d. In addition, 7442 lefc- ■ fceis intended for "Tattersall's," containing £3984 lls l£d, were received from Hobart as prohibited, and returned to the senders. . Amongst other things dealt with there were 8 gold watches, 30 gold brooches, 8 gold chains, 15 gold rings, 5 gold tiepins, 4 gold bangW, 3 sets gold earrings, 3 gold lockets and chains!, 1 pair gold sleeve-links, 1 gold-mounted tobacco pouch, 27 gold and greenstone pendants, 6 gold-mounted greenstone brooches, 2 gold-mounted greenstone watch-chains, 34 silver and metal watches, 3 silver brooches, 2 silver chains, 6 greenstone silver-mounted spoons, 2 greestone silvermounted butter-knive6, 1 silver-backed hair-brush, 1 silver-backed mirror, 1 silver flask, 1 silver serviette-ring, 1 silver photograph-fnune, 1 silver butter-dish, 1 silver sovereign-case, 2 silver cigaretteholders, 5 pieces of electroplate, 1. steamer ticket, 6 railway tickets, 9 pawn tickets, 3 share certificates, and 52 lottery tickets. The proportion of dead or unclaimed letters, letter-cards, and post-cards to the total number delivered within the Dominion was 0.44 per cent. 212,821 letters were opened and returned to writers through the Dead Letter Office : 54,591 were returned unopened to other countries; 526 wez& reissued; 21,883 were destroyed ; 206,147 were returned by chief postmasters; a total of 496,068 letters, as compared, with. 424,339 in 1910. Altogether 51,416 other articles Were returned to foreign countries ; 6196 were returned to the senders through the Dead Letter Office; 288,275 were ?*. turned by chief postmasters ; a total of 345,887 other aitieles, as compared with 252,227 in 1910. A total of 12,503 letters were wrongly addressed; 31 letters were discovered to have been posted with previously ufeed stamps : 8040 unclaimed registered letters were dealt with. Again, 4887 newipapeis and 3696 books and other articles without addresses were received, many of which, were subsequently applied for and delivered. 30,984 newspapers were iM'turaed to publishers, 3568 letters and 853 letter-carda were posted without addresses, 125 letters with libellous addresses were intercepted, aud 4534 enquiries for postal packets alleged to have been posted and not delivered were mad© during 1911. In 2685 of the enquiries — ;>wr one-half of the tofal number — th© investigations by the department resulted, in the missing article being traced I or accounted for.