CHRISTMAS PRESENTS

Grey River Argus, 11 February 1938, Page 4

CHRISTMAS PRESENTS

HUNDREDS IN DEAD LETTER ' OFFICE. . SAMPLES OF FORGETFULNESS. One of the Christmas rushes of the Post and Telegraph Department is in the Dead Letter Office at the G.P.O. This division has just settled down to its normal routine of dealing with the difficulties due to forgetfulness in connection with correspondence and postal packets. On the average, the number of such problems for the postmen averages 50 per daygover the whole year. As an aftermath of the Christmas season, when the Post Office organisation facilitates so effectively the exchange of hundreds of thousands of goodwill tokens, there is accumulated in the Dead Letter Office a large and variegated pile of presents which have failed to reach their destinations. Handkerchiefs hurriedly packed and inadequately addressed are in pigeonholes, and it is estimated that there are at least between 1,500 and 2,000. Small articles of clothing, powder compacts, ties and socks are also numerous, and there is even a strong pair of men’s boots. The’number of packets posted without any address or indication of the sender suggests that, during the rush of Christmas shopping, some customers of the Post Office carry their parcels direct from the shop to the nearest post office, where % the post boxes remind them of a future duty which they only partially perform. They put on some stamps but forget to add an address. The only address available to the mail staffs is the Dead Letter' Office, Wellington. Subsequent, enquiries occasionally lead to recovery of the package by the sender; but, if there is any kind of address, the postmen talite a good deal of trouble to secure delivery. If they fail, the Dead Letter Office staff opens the parcel in the hopb of discovering some clue to the sender. Notes simply signed “From Uncle and Auntie,” do not help, but if an address is added the present will at least get back to the sender. Post Office desks also provide a fair quota of the Dead Letter Office accumulation, for there are many fountain pens, some umbrellas, gloves and baskets which have come from this quarter.