POST OFFICE’S BURDEN

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 September 1927, Page 9

POST OFFICE’S BURDEN

LETTER-WRITERS’ ERRORS. There is no reason to suppose that New Zealanders are more careless than the people of other countries in the matter of addressing correspondence, but the fact remains that in every year over a million letters and postal packets cannot bei delivered to the persons to whom they are addressed; why, will be analysed later. As the New Zealand postal service deals annually with over two hundred million things sent through the post, it means that about one postal missive in every 200 fails to reach the person to whom it is addressed, but this is not through any fault on the part of the service.

To state the same fact tn h somewhat different way Seems to remove any stigma Of carelessness. The average of undeliverablc letters works OUt at a little less than one per year for every head of the population, and surely we can be excused for one annual lapse. Of course, liiany people never offend ht all in the direction of iniS’dil’OCtion of letters; others, especially business people, frequently send through the post things which cannot be delivered. Let alone the vast amount of extra work which undeliverablc letters thrusts upon the Postal olllcial.s, the annual cost, to senders of undeliverablc missives is considerable somewhere over £5OOO per annum, Which, of course, is all added revenue to the Post Office.

What is known in Postal circles as the Dead Letter Office is full of very much alive officials, who, unheralded and unsung, perform a service of great benefit to the community. Last year there passed'through the Dead Letter Office 741,248 letters and 324,47 S other postal packets, which for some reason or another could not be delivered to the addressees. Of this total of 1,065,726, rather less than half, 517,771 to be exact, was returned to the senders without milch trouble, the latter having taken the precaution to write or stamp on the' outside of the packet: “If undelivered, plfeilse return to So-and-So,” The remainder had to be Opened in order to ascertain, if possible, the name and address of the sender before returning the misive. But in the cast of 31,496 letters there was only something as vague, or more vague than, the signature, “Your loving George,” to indicate the personality of the sender who also failed to mention from what address he was writing to his darling Jane; so 31,496 letters "Senders unknown and contents Of no value,” were destroyed. Who knows how many budding romances may have been nipped in the bud by this destruction? But no fault can be laid at the door of the Post Office. Letters are not the only undelivered missives which the Post Office receives and is unable to return to the sender when there is no indication who the latter is. There were last year 324,478 packets or parcels containing a wonderful and miscellaneous collection of articles, silk stockings, handkerchiefs, every conceivable article of men’s and ladies’ wear; books boots, etc. These were disposed of by auction, 162 bundles of miscellaneous articles thus changing hands, but not until every possibility of the rightful owner being found had been exhausted. During the year, 20,659 letters were received without any address upon them at all, so the Post Office can hardly be blamed for not delivering these to anyone except the sender, and then only when the sender’s identity is known. Added to these were 6454 newspapers and 4893 other articles, making the respectable total of 42,006 posted packages which people in a moment of forgetfulness have dropped into a letter-box without pitting any address upon them, which is somewhat amazing when one comes to think of it. Imperfect addresses, which no amount of ingenuity could supplement sufficiently to enable delivery to be made, accounted for 23,508 postal packets not reaching their destinations, and 39,085 newspapers found their way back to the publishers. Letters addressed to persons on the “black list” numbered 1338. These were intercepted and not delivered, the “black list” containing the names of agents for lotteries, “quack” doctors, and dealers in indecent publications. A libellous address, or any reference on the outside of the envelope to “debt,” or such unpleasant reminders, is prohibited by the postal regulations, but during the year only 301 such letters’ were received. Another cause of non-delivery was in 93 cases the use of previously cancelled stamps In these cases, where wilfulness could be proved, prosecutions followed. Unclaimed registered letters and packages reached the surprising total of 39,085. That so many letters are non-deiiv-ered is partly accounted for by the Dominion’s shifting population. Men work in one part of the country for some of the year, and in another part for the remainder. Many have no permanent abode and leave no address behind them when they flit from one place to another, this being done purposely, no doubt, in some cases, when the unwelcome attention of creditoi s is not desired. Small firms come and small firms go rather rapidly at times, and business communications to them when they are gone' help to swell the number of undelivered letters. Recently the Clerk of Awards in Auckland handed in 2270 large registered rolls in connection with an award. The Post Office returned more than one-third of them in the course of time, the firms to whom the rolls were addressed being no longer in existence or traceable. The Dead Letter Office is therefore obviously a very busy place. Every effort is made to get a letter or packet to the person for whom it is intended or, failing, that, to return it to the sender. With regard to overseas correspondence a special effort is made, and it is amazing, with the slender clues they often have to work upon, Ifbw the postal officials manage to effect delivery. A foreign letter addressed, as far as almost illegible handwriting could be deciphered, Au familie Allen, Thymaru, Neuseeland, Chirchstruiyse, No 6,” was ,of course, almost at once delivered to No. 6, Church Street, Timaru. But in other cases a process of elimination has to be gone through before the addressee can be found. For instance, “Brown, Cankan Studham, N.Z.,” eventually found the person for whom it was intended at Studholm Junction.. The laconic address (no name) —“Box 11, Upper Broadway, South Island,” provided some scope for ingenuity, but the letter eventually reached its right destination in Reefton. Maori place names to foreign correspondents are not infrequently the cause of some rather obscure addresses. To guess that “Piriatmott” or “Patriatrea” is intended for “Pahiatua,” or that “Ponino” stands for “Porirua” does not require as much skill as to find out by addressing a letter to “Parganice,” the sender wanted it to go to “Wanganui.” Of course, in these cases of jumbled names, the

street name and the name of the addressee, if given, help in unravelling the tangle, and every available directory is brought into, operation in solving tlie puzzle.