MILLIONS OF LETTERS

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 12911, 13 July 1936, Page 2

MILLIONS OF LETTERS

HOW MANY GO ASTRAY THOUSANDS WITHOUT ADDR ESSES ft 'File Deuel Letter Brail Ii of the General Post Office last year returned 0Q3,192 letters to senders in New Zealand, and although this total appears large it conies into proper proportions •alien contrasted with the lot million letters delivered in tile same year. Actually the proportion of undelivered letters to the total delivered is only U. 49 per cent, and it could have been smaller but for certain little weaknesses displayed by some o! the department's customers, lor instance, tho Dead Letter office record of 1935 includes the following facts : Letters destroyed (senders unknown and contents of no value) 24,523. Letters and letter-cards posted without address, 10,508. Let ters imperfectly or insufficiently addressed. 19,138. Letters returned to other postal administrations, 38,344. There was a large increase ill undelivered letters owing mainly to the use of the mails by the Electoral Department to check the Dominion s electoral rolls. The. posting of a notification to all electors on the roll enabled the Electoral officers to ascertain whether electors were std! living, at the recorded address. Thouisandis <o!l letters failed to reach llie intended recipients because oi failure t.j notify tho local returning officer of changes of address and the consequent use of addresses some years old. Many letters which come to the Dead Letter Office because the addressee has not been found are destroyed because the contents provide no clue enabling the Post Office* 1 to return tho communication to the sende • whoso address is pitlier not given a+'tho head of tho letter or is of such an indefinite nature that a signature eon lined to a Christian name is ol no use in tracing. All undelivered post d packets (except those which bear on tho outside the name and address of the sender) go to the Dead Letter Office, the only branch ol the department where they'can he opened. Many letters held there find their ultimate destination following an inquiry for a missing letter. Possibly the address has been inadequate, but an inquiry leads either to the -discovery of tho correct address or '.o the return of. the letter to its sender. There is a very small proportion of serious irregularities in posting ol correspondence in New Zealand; the General Post Office last year found it neeeesary in only 115 cases to intercept letters which bore a libellous address and to return 2431 letters addressed to persons or firms on the prohbited list. H the public in New ! Zealand could be educated to show the name ' and address of the sender on the outside—preferably on the back V-of every letter posted, the Dead Letter Office would bo saved an immense amount of work , and letter writers would avoid many disappointments, mis understandings and even i heartbreaks. Liters bearing on the outside the name and address of tho sender arc returned to the sender un- . opened from the office of address. It ji noteworthly that judging by the nuiils reaching New Zealand, tho ‘ Canadian and United States pphlie almost invariably follow this desirable practice.