POSTAL PUZZLES

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 April 1932, Page 3

POSTAL PUZZLES

HUMOUR IN ADDRESSES. -The Post Office is frequently called upon to deliver letters to addresses, the deciphering of- which would often do credit to Sherlock Holmes (says the Wellington “Evening Post”). Sometimes these cryptic addresses are the work of those whose, idea of humour seems to be to put other people to a lot of trouble for nothing. At other times the struggles of the foreigner with the New Zealand language are patent, while a third category of cryptic addresses may possibly result from bad handwriting emanating from New Zealand, the person in some other country answering the letter making a shot (often a pretty wide one)- at what the scribble is intended to be.

Posit Office sorters do not exactly love those'people who think it funny to try to perplex them. Such people have to be tolerated, like other nuisances, and the officials have to do their job and deliver the letter if possible. Not long ago there was posted in Wellington a letter which as an address bore several bars of music and- the word Dunedin —nothing else. Within a day or two it was duly delivered at the office of the “Evening Star” Company. Wagner’s “Tannhauser” excerpt, “O Star of Eve,” was what the bars of music represented, so delivery was but a small puzzle to the postal sleuths, one of whom at least must have had a good knowledge of music. With regard to the delivery of this letter, the postmaster at Dunedin wrote: “The letter was posted at Courtenay Place on the 24th, was- received on the morning of the 27th, and was delivered within a few minutes of receipt. The exhibit may possibly be of some interest and certainly indicates the intelligence of postal officers.” Another self-styled humorist tried to flummux the Post Office by addressing a letter as follows: —“Mrs ABCDEFGHIJKMNOPQRSTU-VWXYZ, Spud Street, Windy.” It was duly delivered to Mrs Noel, (no “L”), Murphy Street, Wellington, for whom it was intended.

For jokes of that kind, however, postal officials have no great appreciation, however funny the senders of such letters think themselves to be. But when it comes to deciphering addresses obviously not intended to perplex them purposely they leave no stone unturned to decipher the sender’s intentions. For instance, “Ogarie King, c/o Er. B ; . Ltd.,” presented few difficulties) and the’ letter thus- addressed- went to Ellie and- Burnard, fflandt hele tterthus ad- aSSL iciu.le Ltd., Ongarue, King Country. Where else except to Bajraud Street, Dannevirke, would one expect New Zealand’s astute postal officials to send an overseas letter adressed “Banana Street, Doceai Ke”? A letter addressed to “Kaupi Kanine, Wellington,” ultimately got to the place it was intended for, namely, Kaupokonui, Tara,naki. “Jugeshe Street, Manganiri,” (was rightly translated to be intended [for Ingestre Street, Wanganui. FOREIGNERS’ MISTAKES-

A foreigner’s attempt to address a letter to Shakespeare road, Napier, resulted in “Sha Kesneera Road, Napfea,” but the letter found the addressee. The somewhat vague Wa H. On, K- 78, N-Z-,” was on a letter which arrived recently from China. It was duly delivered to Wah On, a compatriot of the sender, who lives at that number in Molesworth Street. A letter to the Cafe De Luxe in Willis Street was addressed "Coile De Waxe, Wes St., Niccincton, New Leacemp, and it got there! Few would guess rightly to what address a letter with “Orient, St. Olla Bei, Neva Zelando, on it should be delivered. The Wellington postal officials took it to Trent Street, Island Bay, and they were right. - Hundreds of instances might be quoted of wrongly spelt place names on letters. The following few will suffice:—"3 A. E- Koa,” for “Paeroa ; "P. Line, Merton,” for Plimmerton; “Emclohsina” for Eketahuna;, Malincka” for Motueka; “Gildrie” for Geraldine; “Camarv” for Oamaru; and ‘Lake Raw” for Tokarahi- On one letter “Wolliglesoan Geoft” was deciphered as being an attempt at Wellesley Street (Auckland), and on another “Thinane, Theodscia,” was rightly interpreted to be Theodocia Street, Timaru. Who can. accuse postal officials of lack of intelligence after that? New Zealand post offices naturally do not get as many quaintly addressed letters as do the busier English post offices. The latter at times have had some “prize winners” to deal with, some of which were quoted to “The Post” man who was collecting the examples quoted above- For instance, there was. the letter bearing in three lines as an address the words Wood John HantsWhat simpler than to deliver it to John Underwood, Andover, Hants? An Indian student with little English at his command tried, and successfully too, “In No Jamtshere” for “Northamptonshire.”

If addresses on letters have their j humour sometimes, so do postmarks.* In a recent law suit, counsel examin- i ing a witness said: “The whole case hangs upon the destroyed letter. You saw the envelope; how think—what did the postmark say?” “Buy British kippers,” was the ready answer,