STILL AT TOP SPEED

Evening Star, Issue 25673, 22 December 1945, Page 4

STILL AT TOP SPEED

POST OFFICE BUSINESS HUGE QUANTITIES OF MAIL MATTER At least one section of the community will heave a sigh of relielf when the Christmas season is over. This is the section comprising the officers and staffs of the Post and Telegraph Department, ifor whom it has, indeed, been a strenuous time, a record-breaking time during which cool heads, nimble fingers, and untiring energy have been necessary on the part of the all-too-small number of workers in order to cope with the unprecedented rush. Some small idea of this rush may be obtained when it is said that the number of letters put through the' postmarking machines for the five days of this week—that is, up to and including yesterday—was 445,100,, or 83,000 more than were handled during that period last year. Yesterday alone 66,100 went through the machines as compared with 38,900 on the same date in 1944. And the postmen and postwomen have had long and weary tramps with their heavy loads, and even with the assistance of casual hands, many of them have not completed their rounds until, in some cases, approaching midnight. YESTERDAY'S FIGURES. Yesterday's activities at the Central Post Office'included the despatch of 513 bags of mail, as compared with 400 sent out on December 21, 1944, the number of bags received being respectively 520 and 439. The parcel receptacles despatched numbered 361, and in this isolated case it was less than last year's figures for the day, which were 409. Parcel receptacles received, however, numbered 461 as against 278. The number olf overflow bags in the postmen's branch to-day was 520 (300 last year). The number. of registered articles delivered by the postmen yesterday was 550 (400 last year). In the Telegraph Department also, all were extremely busy. The number of telegrams delivered yesterday was 3,633, as compared with 2,979 on December 21, 1944, while 2,506 were forwarded, as against 2,172 last year. It must be remembered,' too, that the special " greeting " telegrams which have been a feature of previous years' business were this year cut out. At the telephone toll counter yesterday 1,829 outward calls were handled. Last year the number on the same day was 1,524. ' \ . The officers at the stamp counters were likewise kept at high, pressure all day. It may be added that yesterday alone nearly' 5,000 penny stamps were obtained from the stamp-vending machines in the vestibule of the Central. Post Office, a number which was probably exceeded on previous days this week.