SERVICE AT SMALL COST

Greymouth Evening Star, 29 September 1928, Page 5

SERVICE AT SMALL COST

PEEPS IN THE MAIL BOOM.

Ever stop to consider how much the Postal Department does in return for the penny stamp you affix to a letter? A “Star’’ reporter knocked at the door of the mailroom sanctum at the Greymouth Post Office to-day, and asked to be told “what happened after a letter was posted?” Mr D. M. Mclntosh, the Chief Postmaster, courteously invited the enquirer to come along, and he would afford all information where the book of rules did not apply.

Ordinarily one dashes off a letter, posts it either at one of the street pillar boxes, ox* at thp posting lobby, and gives no further thought as to how it will reach tlhe addressee. People have got so used to the arrival and departure of letters, that no one ever thinks to enquire the various operations passed through, before a letter is finally delivered at its destination. The story of “my life” is, however, disclosed behind the scenes, in the mailroom.

On entering one is at once struck with the arrangements for the quick handling of mail matter, whether outward or inward. A huge iron fixture called a “crate” stands in a convenient place in the office. This contains rows of mail bags, with their voracious mouths waiting to be filled. At the head of each bag its destination is indicated in distinct black letters, in older that the despatches can see at a glance into which bag the letters fol* each town or hamlet are to be placed. In front of these are the sox*ting racks where the letters are placed, after passing through the stamping machine, and where the first sorting takes place, the letters being sorted into compartments according to destination. The stamping machine is a time saver. Though being a. small one manipulated by hand, that in the Greymouth mailroom can stamp letters at the rate of five hundred pex* minute. The letters are taken from the posting boxes at intervals, and the bulky envelopes and small packets hand-stamped, while the remainder are put “heads down,” and flicked through the stamping machine. In larger offices, whex*e heavy quantities of letters are dealt with, the stamping machine is worked by power, the letters being conveyed to It, for stamping, on a belt. As they are stamped, another conveyor carries them to the sorting tables. At periods during the day and night, an officer goes and clears all the street posting boxes. Having the letters stamped and sorted, the despatches tie them in bundles, and place them in their mailbag, which, when the mail closes, is tied up with strong string, and the ends of the string gripped by a lead tablet bearing the office number. The absence of the lead tablet, when the bag reaches its destination, creates suspicion that the bag has been tampered with in transit, and a. careful examination is made of its contents, to ascertain if all are there or not.

The letters arriving at the Greymouth Post Office, fox* local deliveries, are at once gene through, and sorted into order for street delivery, while fihose for the private box holders are sorted directly into the lettex* boxes. It is all so simple, and easily done, and the service for a single letter so complete that one fails to realise the magnitude of the work undertaken for so small a charge. Ordinarily, a letter is handled on an average of ten times before it is packed in the mailbag foxdispatch, and as many times again before reaching the addressee. On the surface, everything would, appeal* to be a simple “rule of thumb” system. The vagaries of the human element have, however, to be reckoned with. Incomplete or wrong addresses, eiTors in spelling, illegible writing, all are factors encountered, whidh mean delay and trouble. The patience and ingenuity of the mailroom officers are often put to a severe test in deciphering correct addresses out of -the wroxig ones, of locating the addressees, and genei*ally solving the problems which arise through the laxity of the public, in addressing their letters. Most people accept the service as a matter of course, seldom giving thought to the careful organisation required to effectively carry it out with the perfection prevailing to-day.