RUSH OF MAILS

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 149, 21 December 1945, Page 9

RUSH OF MAILS

LONG HOURS WORKED

HUGE DAILY VOLUME

Mail carriers, sorters, stampers, and all others connected with the craft of dealing with letters and parcels are far too busy at this time 'of year to ponder on the joys their extra deliveries may bring to the recipients. The Chief Post Office at Wellington alone had 220,000 letters capable of going through the 600-a-minute automatic stamping machines dropped into its boxes on Wednesday. There was a drop yesterday to a mere 200,000, but in addition to these some scores of thousands of letters and packages, being too thick, were hand-stamped.

Well upwards of half a million letters and small packages posted in two days at one post office is heavy going, particularly in view of the limited accommodation to handle such vast quantities. Nevertheless, they should all reach their final letter-boxes not more than a few hours later than normal, at worst.

The mail-rooms at the post office, where both inward and outward mail is sorted for the city area, Brooklyn, Karori, Wadestown, Ngaio, Khandallah, and intervening places, is a maze of industry. That applies this week to every minute between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. Yet it all seems quiet and orderly enough. It has to be if the work is to be done. For handling outward mail, the staff position this year is satisfactory. For inward mail the situation could be better. However, each delivery i carrier has at present an assistant, without whom it would be physically impossible for anyone with a constitution poorer than a bison's to conserve enough strength to eat Christmas dinner. HUNDREDS OF EXTRA BAGS. Nor do the carriers set forth from their base with the entire load for the round. As many as a dozen extra bags are dropped at appropriate points on the round this week to be picked up in order and delivered. Probably about 500 of these extra bags will be necessary tomorrow in the Chief Post Office delivery area—the number required this year is about a third more than on corresponding days last year.

All this Is exclusive of the Kilbirnie and Wellington South Post Offlqes, which have their own sorting and delivery organisations just as if they were separate tow.as. So the total items of mail being handled this Christmas throughout Wellington reach figures nearing the astronomical.

Those who post extra Christmas mail so close to the day itself have always been the despair of postal officials, and this year is no exception. There was a sudden boom in the quantities posted at the Chief Post Office on Monday. It was evident that thousands of people had spent the weekend addressing Christmas cards and wrapping parcels of small gifts. Since then there has been little respite. Nor is any relief expected until late on Christmas Eye, when the posties will still be wearily plodding, their round with more to carry than ever while most other people will have deserted their offices and factories for the usual convivial forgathering.

So post early next Christmas and give them a break.