LETTER WRITING

Evening Star, Issue 22818, 29 November 1937, Page 3

LETTER WRITING

NEW ZEALANDERS' ANNUAL TOTAL NEARLY NINETY PER INDIVIDUAL The letter-writing habit of New Zealanders is extremely well developed and results in the Post Office dealing every year with mails of enormous i>roportions. The figures for last year indicate what is now regarded as inevitable in these times, a further advance on those of the previous period, the total number of letters and letter cards, post cards, circulars, packets, _ newspapers, and parcels posted and delivered in the Dominion reaching the formidable figure of just over 534 millions. This includes both articles arriving from overseas and those posted and delivered in the Dominion, so that the extent of the use of the mails by New Zealanders only must be gauged from the separate statistics on the same basis relating to postings in the Dominion. These total 261,590,000. Some contrasts between the relative amount of postings in different parts of the Dominion are possible by taking out of the analysis the particulars relating only to letters and letter cards, which constitute the principal feature. In the various postal districts of the Dominion and its associated Pacific islands the letters and letter cards handled last year were as follow:

Totals 141,853,498 292,098,761 The figures .regarding post cards are not included in the above details, but one point of interest about them is that the total number handled last year showed a decrease, and if the comparison is extended over a longer period the decreasing popularity of the post card becomes more marked, last year’s total being 468,000 fewer than in 1916, when the picture post ■ card was in great favour. Although letter writing maintains impressive proportions among New Zealanders, it is actually not so extensive as in former years, for when the millions quoted above are reduced to terms of letter per unit of population the results appear as follow;—>

The reduction in the percentage shown in 1931 was due probably to the raising of the minimum postage rate to 2d as a revenue-maintaining expedient during the depression. However, New Zealand resumed penny postage in June., 1932, after which the figures commenced to rise, although they have not returned to the 1930 level. The principal reason for the apparently tardy recovery is probably that letter writing has to some extent been replaced by the more frequent use of the telephone, specially for social purposes after business hours when reduced rates apply on the toll lines. The number of toll calls handled last year was 13,143,171 while the number handled during the year ended March, 1917, was only 5,040,672. The Post Office can still point to a growth in the volume of its mails equalling over 50 million letters in 10 years, and if the letters per unit of population are fewer the business is being obtained in another way.

Postal Posted and District. Posted. Delivered. Auckland 28,479,811 60,731,667 Blenheim 1,417,147 2,913,356 Christchurch 15,465,672 33,179,472 Dunedin 11,260,976 22,863,749 Gisborne 3,326,470 6,520,895 Greymouth 2,044,191 4,335,350 Hamilton 10,438,960 21,152,351 Invercargill 6.462,042 ' 12,847,499 Napier ... . 7,156,474 14,399,667 Nelson ... . 3,002,850 6,958,231 New Plymouth 5,308,253 10.567,624 Oamaru 1,596,180 3,115,178 Palmerston North 6,492,604 13,233,832 7,478,619 Thames 3,528,387 Timaru 3,686,213 7,340,877 Wanganui 5,812,592 10,856,930 Wellington 25,502,190 52,510,344 Westport 747,305 1.839,110 Rarotonga 46,080 101,616 Western Samoa 79,101 152,494

1930 ... ... ... 101.9 1931 ... 90.55 1932 77.48 1933 81.79 1934 ... -... ... 85.47 1935 ... 86.53 1936 ... 89.51