100,000 LETTERS

Grey River Argus, 19 March 1941, Page 2

100,000 LETTERS

For the Troops POSTED LAST MONTH. WELLINGTON, March 18. Some idea of the huge volume of mail matter that now goes forward to New Zealand soldiers overseas, may be gained from the fact that, during the past four weeks, no less than 81. tons of soldiers’ mail was despatched overseas, said the Post-master-General (Hon. P. C. Webb), in a statement made to-day. Parcels comprised 49 tons, newspapers and other reading matter 30 tons, and letters over two tons, the latter including almost one ton of airmail. Probably between 90,000 and 100,000 air-mail letters had been posted to soldiers overseas, last month. The volume of correspondence received from soldiers overseas is also heavy, except that the inward mails consist mainly of letters. A fairly lafge number of parcels, however, are received, these containing for the most part souvenirs. Although there has been a slight falling oft, there has also been a considerable volume of civilian mail matter, both inwards and outwards, and any falling off has been more than compensated by the heavy traffic for the Expeditionary Force.