LIVELY TIME

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 143, 14 December 1938, Page 10

LIVELY TIME

MAIL FOR AWATEA

RUSH ON THE WHARF

Probably the busiest postal officials in Wellington late yesterday afternoon were the two men in the red van, which was the official headquarters of the wharf post office on Queen's Wharf for the receipt of late-fee correspondence for the Awatea.

Fifteen minutes before the vessel was due to sail thfe office closed, but it was too soon "for many people, and as the van moved off towards the Awatea it was pursued by several sprinting office boys and clerks bearing armfuls of letters. One boy thrust his bundle of letters into the'hands of the driver after the van had started to move, and when it stopped behind the shed at the vessel's side the postal clerks were besieged by late-comers.

With only ten minutes before the Awatea was to sail the officer in charge said he could accept no more mail. The door closed, but one man, after running all round the van, thumped on the rear door until a perspiring and exasperated official opened it. "Only twenty-four letters," said the man, "and I sat up all last night writing them. Please take them." The official capitulated and the man went away satisfied.

The noise of the busy date stamp inside the van beat a rapid tattoo until about five minutes before the Awatea began to move. Finally the door opened and the last bags of late mail were hoisted aboard. But there were still more late-comers, and several disconsolate people were standing on the wharf with sheafs of letters when the vessel moved away.

Asked to comment on a complaint by Wellington business firms that to close at the General Post Office at 3 p.m. yesterday, the Australian mail by the Awatea, which did not sail until 5 p.m., was, at this busy time of the year, inconveniently early,, the Chief Postmaster at Wellington (Mr. J. Madden) said that two hours before closing time was the usual closing hour and that yesterday the postal staff had the greatest difficulty in preparing the extra heavy mail in time to catch the vessel.

"Had we closed the mail later we simply could not have caught the Awatea," he said. "As it was, we had to delay her for a few * minutes because of the large volume of late-fee correspondence. Anticipating a very heavy mail, we put on a large extra staff, and those men had to work at top speed to have the mail ready in time. Closing times in Wellington compare very favourably with what is done in Australia. I do not know what the Wellington business people would say if we followed the Sydney practice and closed the mail at 10 o'clock in the morning on the day of sailing. "If we closed the ; mail at 10 o'clock at night there would still be some people too late," said Mr. Madden when told that some people had been shut out at the wharf post office.