LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 151, 23 December 1918, Page 8

LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS

SPEEDY DESPATCH.

Compared with conditions prevailing before the war, the state of affairs at the correspondence ' branch of the General Post Office at Wellington is nothing like so busy to-day. The tons of Christmas cards and letters of kindly remembrance which used to be sent in by the cartload, are now represented by a few- sacksful,, and the friendly hamper has almost disappeared. During the period of the war these were replaced by letters and parcels for soldiers at the various fronts, and then, the offices fairly hummed at the festive season. This year things are somewhat different. The postal service is not much above normal,, although this is accounted for to some extent by the fact that Australian) and other overseas mails are not to hand, owing to causes which have been the subject of a good deal of comment, and also to the fact that the gradual demobilisation of the New Zealand Expeditionary Ffirces has reduced the necessity for letter-writing and parcel-sending. The oversea mails will, it is, anticipated, come along in due course, and then the office will be busier. At present, however, the report is that things are only somewhat above normal, the parcels department being the busiest. In the' Telegraph Department there is a spirit of optimism. At last all tho instruments are fully manned, and the work is proceeding merrily. The wonderfnl spirit of. Christmas appears to have seized upon the operators, and a visit tothe operating room is an inspiration., T6 use a colloquialism, the men are simply "eating up" the messages which are coming along by the hundred, and only this morning, in one short period of two hours, no fewer than 1200 messages were received, 1000 were sent away, and the remaining 200 were all but ready for transmission. The telegraph messengers, boys and girls, were reported to be doing their work splendidly, and that was the impression formed by a Post reporter who was permitted to make a personal inspection of the scheme of operations.

If the wires continue to work as well as they are doing to-day there should be very little delay in the transmission of telegrams during the remainder of the holidays. Any messages not sent out on Tnesday night will be sent out at 8 o'clock on Christmas morning. ',