UNIVERSAL POSTAL UNION

Greymouth Evening Star, 6 September 1938, Page 4

UNIVERSAL POSTAL UNION

HOW IT SERVES NEW ZEALAND. The New -Zealand Post Office accepts for transmission postal packets for every country in the world, and it is able to do this because of the smooth working of the great international organisation, the Universal Postal Union. The 84 countries who have signed the Postal Union Convention constitute —regardless of their political differences —one territory for postal purposes, and an article of the Convention reads: “Freedom of transit is guaranteed throughout the entire territory of the Union.” What is termed a “closed mail” cGnsits of bags of postal packets addressed to a particular country with the certainty that the principles of the Postal Union will cause every postal administration along the route to give the best of its facilities to expedite the journey by the most suitable route and means of transit. These services are paid for by New Zealand, but the mails are not delayed by a constant process of weighing. This only occurs once in every three years when, during a period of twenty-eight days, the particulars of the weight of all mails despatched are recorded. Each mail during this weighing period contains a postal union form indicating full particulars of the weight and class of mail enclosed. The despatch is also accompanied by a special route waybill, which is eventually returned to New Zealand carrying a record in the shape of date-stamps and other entries, showing all the forms of transit utilised in getting the mail to its destination. While mails to England by the direct route show only one transit, there are a number of routes used regularly for New Zealand correspondence, involving as many as seven different handlings. A typical mail of the latter class from New Zealand to Yugoslavia illustrates how the Postal Union works for New Zealand in remote parts of the world. First, this mail goes by sea to Sydney; it next goes overland to Adelaide or Fremantle; thence to Aden, where it is transhipped for despatch to Port Taullq, near Suez. Next comes an overland transit to Alexandria under the direction of the Egyptian postal administration, which sees to its despatch by sea to Piraeus, where the Greek postal administration attends to the final stage of the journey, the seventh according to the route waybill. Every postal administration which has assisted the mail on its way is entitled to collect a portion of the transit charges from the New Zealand administration, and this liability. is ascertained from the route way-bill.

MUTUAL RESPONSIBILITY. The responsibility of New Zealand is to deliver a mail to the country of destination at its own cost. Delivery to recipients within the country is accepted as a duty o£ the postal administration of that country. New Zealand’s Post Office will render similar services in connection with overseas mails, and the assumption is that these services approximately balance. However, this does not work out in practice so far as‘ United Kingdom mails to New Zealand are concerned, lor they uro practically double the volume of those despatched from the Dominion to that country, the reason being the heavy volume of letters and printed matter including periodicals, which New Zealanders receive from the Homeland.

New Zealand correspondence, for some countries is not sufficient to justify a “closed mail,’,’ and here the friendly services of other administrations overseas are rendered under the auspices of the Postal Union. They receive from many sources the correspondence for countries more directly in touch with them, and they make up “closed mails.” The Ceylon administration at Colombo takes the New Zealand letters for Aden, Abyssinia, Somaliland, Erithrea, Seychelles, and Madagascar, to include in its own mail-bags to those countries. The Egyptian Port Taufig is another postal

“cross-roads” which will see to the despatch of all New Zealand mails for Asia Minor and all Balkan countries except Yugoslavia, which has its own “closed mail.” Singapore postal administration renders a similar service in respect to Malaya, Borneo, and Indo China.

Willi'the whole world for its operating territory, the Postal Union requires for mutual discussions one common basis of finance. When New Zealand postal officials receive a louto way-bill of a mail which they have despatched overseas, the varied date-stamp impressions tell a clear story of the points at which the bags have been transferred from one’ transit to another, and the entries indicate liabilities incurred by the New Zealand Post Office. These’ are settled on the basis of a gold franc, of a declared degree of fineness and weight. The headquarters of the Postal Union are situated in Berne, Switzerland, and every five years there is a Congress of representatives of the signatory countries at which New Zealand must always be represented, and it exercises a full vote. The next Congress will take place in April, 1939, at Buenos Aires.