LIFETIME OF LETTER-CARRYING

Evening Star, Issue 18093, 7 October 1922, Page 11

LIFETIME OF LETTER-CARRYING

ME V/. J. MULROONEY.

SENIOR POSTMAN IN NEW ZEALAND

When, on Friday last week, Mr William Joseph Mulrooney, the veteran letter-car-rier, was presented by his colleagues with a morris chair on the eve of his retirement, the chief postmaster (Mr M‘Crao) said that the recipient was not only the senior letter-carrier of the district, but the senior letter-carrier of New Zealand. He joined the service on October 31, 1883, at Dunedin, his native town, when Mr Archibald Barr was chief postmaster and Mr George Miller had' charge of the delivery department, and he has served his thirty-nine years without any serious interruption, his only absences on leave being on one occasion on account of an obstinate cold, and on another to repair damages caused by an ill-mannered retriever rushing him in Brown street and biting his leg. A bite by a Newfoundland dog that jumped on to him whilst delivering a letter in Grant street gave Mr Mulrooney no concern—he took it in his stride, as one might say—and did not make it the excuse for leave. This is a. great record, of duty, considering the nature of a postman’s life. It has made him a regular hardy annual. And he has in all other respects shaped as a good citizen. At the farewelling by the Post Office men it was mentioned that he is the father of ten children, eight of them now alive, that three of his sons fought in France, and a fourth was in camp preparing to go, when peace was declared; also that he drew out his life insurance money and placed it in the first war loan. , These facts having been brought to light, no one present thought it vainglorious of Mr -Mulrooney to remark “If there is any man in the Civil Sendee who can say he did more for his country, I take off my hat to him.” The presentation on retirement was, by the way, the third in Mr Mulrooncy’s honor. The first was of a marble clock when be married; the second was in celebration of his silver wedding; and the last was the greatest surprise he ever got since his wife presented him with twin daughters. He now proposes to settle quietly in his homo at the- corner of Oxford and Cashel streets and devote his leisure to gardening and poultry. The daily life of a letter-carrier when Mr Mulrooney put on the uniform entailed a terrific amount of walking. Three of the runs which he worked at various times were nothing short of pedestrian tours. One included the whole of Cavevsham, St. Clair, and Another comprehended the Mormngtan. region. Tho third consisted of Kensington and South Dunedin to the beach, and took in Anderson Bay to the tram terminus. If tho miles were measured and numbered, Mr MulToouey could probably hold his own against any descendant of Abraham who shared the forty years’ wandering on tho Sinnitin peninsula. Ho remembers that on one occasion ho got a. lift in Dr Stuart’s buggy, and he still has a vivid recollection of a disaster that overtook him when he accepted tho offer of a ride in a milk cart—he sprang up, caught in something, heard the noise of rending, felt the cool air, and straightway made for home by the most secluded bypath he knew of. Walking he found surer than chance rides, also, ns a rule, more expeditious, since a postman gets few long stretches without a call.

Bnt the letter-carriers’ runs are now more compact, and they work under a less laborious system than in the old days. In times gone by a postman who had a distant round could get no lift for suro excepting a run in the mail-cart to bis starting point. If making a second tour in the day ho 'had to travel to and from tho office on foot or pay his fare. Many a time Mr Mulrooney has walked home from “the Bay” or St. Clair after being on his feet all day. Nowadays the postmen may use the tram care. The loads they set out with are also lighter. The only time he ever complained about his burden was when, a few clays before a General Election, one of the political parties procured a copy of a Wellington (paper for every elector in South Ward, and put tho whole lot through the post, with three or four copies for each boarding-hou.se. “My bag that day,” says Mr Mulrooney, “ would have done for a camel, and I did in a quiet way ask if they thought me a beast of burden.” It may be information to some persons that letter-carriers prefer trade and political circulars—things that are posted by the thousand’—to be impersonally addressed, as to “Householder.” If they are separately addressed—one to Brown, another to Jones, and so on—tho delivery is a longer job, since they all have to bo sorted in order of address-

The slovenly writing of addresses is one of a postman's common troubles. He often has to trust to his local knowledge to save a fruitless trudge. As an example, Mr Mulrooney quotes an instance of a letter addressed "2 Vogel street,” and ho didn’t bother, because he knew that the person named lived at 246 Vogel street. The nddres-sor had forgotten to ada “46” to the “ 2.” The writing of addresses now is not a bit better than it was thirty-nine years ago. On© of tho privileges a postman enjoys is immunity from night work. The latest hour at which the Dunedin men were “ through ” in Mr Mulrooncy’s experience was 9 o’clock, after delivering a mail much swollen by the Rev. W. Thomson’s a-nti-Prohibition circulars and an English mail. That was quite an exception. He personally bad a longer day on the occasion of tho Diamond Jubilee. A local clergyman, who was going to take a celebration service on the -Sunday, arranged with the officials to deliver on the Saturday night some English papers that ho expected and wished to refer to, and Mr Mulrooney was tho man who had to do this job. He delivered the papers at 1 o’clock on the Sunday morning. H© believes that to be tho record late delivery.