CHRISTMAS MAILS

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 125, 23 November 1926, Page 10

CHRISTMAS MAILS

WORK IN THE G.P.O

COPING WITH THE RUSH

THOUSANDS OF BAGS DPS

PATCHED.

:' The Post Office perhaps feels the approach of Christmas earlier than do business firms, and during the past few weeks the Post Office has had good reason to know that tho . festive season—tho season of greet- : iugs—is at hand. There aro two peaks of Christmas postal busi.uess: tho first occurs from six to „ four weeks before Christmas, ' when a huge increase in tho mails for the Homeland manifests itself. ; That has now just passed, and the : second has still to come when the inward mails bearing Christmas greetings from tho Homeland arrive in New Zealand. 'As far as tho Wellington G.P.O. is concerned, the rush began shortly before 9th November, for on that date the Makura left Wellington for San Francisco bearing the early instalment of the outward Christmas mail. Her mail comprised over 500 bags of letters, which numbered approxbnately 275,000 and weighed over 60001b. /Added to this wore 22,5001b of newspapers and packets. Eight days later ■ the Ruapehu left with a mail comprising 1052 bags containing 4431b, of letters, nearly 20,000 in number, and 57,8601b of newspapers and packets. In addition to light mail matter (letters, newspapers, and packets), the Ruapehu carried a large parcel mail, some 3350 parcels in all. Parcels in large numbers will bo also leaving to-day by the Tamaroa. THE ELEVENTH HOUR. The last mail from New Zealand to reach Great Britain before Christmas closed at Wellington yesterday in order to connect with the Niagara at Auckland. This mail was also of large dimensions, comparable to that carried by the Makura, many people deferring the posting of their Christmas letters until the last minute. The PostmasterGeneral communicated some time ago with tho Canadian Post Office, asking that, if necessary, special steps be taken to see that this mail makes close connections in Canada both with the C.P.R. train and with tho trans-Atlantic steamer. This mail should roach London on the 23rd December, in time to be delivered before Christmas. A LARGE INWARD MAIL. Unfortunately for them, the Post Office officials are not responsible for the times of the arrivals and departures of the mail boats. If they were they would not have arranged for the Tahiti to arrive yesterday morning from San Francisco with an inward mail of about 2600 bags. The overlapping of this arrival with the departure of the last outgoing Christmas mail entailed great pressure of work in the Post Office, but skilled and.thorough organisation enabled the dispatch of the outgoing mail and the sorting of the incoming one to proceed with a minimum of delay. Unloading the Tahiti's mall yesterday morning took several horas, and lorry after lorry loaded high conveyed the mail bags to tho Post Office. Some 600 of these, bags left for the South Island by last night's ferry steamer, and about tho same number went North by train. ■ WORK IN THE G.P.O. At first sight the scene in the mailroom of the Wellington G.P.O. seems to one of unutterable chaos. Wheeled baskets of mail matter are everywhere, some stationary and others being rapidly propelled, by hand in this direction or that. There aro thousands of letters being, sorted into bags or pigeonholes by an army of sorters, and thousands more are being guided through the electrically-driven postmarking machines which adjures one to "study one's own country first and buy New Zea-land-made goods." But.a few minutes' observation reveals order in the apparent chaos; each operator knows exactly what his job is, and he does it. The gaping bags aro quickly filled and sealed, and carted away to railway or steamer, and tho local boxes and post offices receive their quota too. Letters aro comparatively quickly dealt with; long practice makes the operators as proficient as a conjurer with a pack of cards. But the handling of packets, newspapers, and parcels is naturally a slower proceeding. At this time of year the total of the Christmas numbers of the newspapers sent through the post is phenomenal, "Yesterday, awaiting despatch, wore no fewer than 480 bags of "weeklies" piled high from floor to coiiing, and these had beer, allowed to accumulate only since last Saturday week. When it comes to counting the letters which pass through its hands for any one particular mail, the Wellington Post Office does not adopt the crude and laborious methods of verbal or mental enumeration; . accurate results are arrived at by the use of a graduated board. The letters are stacked in a row after the manner of books on a shelf. They are then compressed tightly by means of a sliding end-piece attached to the graduated board and the number of letters is read off on the scale. Although the letters actually vary considerably in thickness, such large numbers are dealt with that very accurate results are obtained by this method.