SCENES IN MAIL ROOM

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 22 April 1935, Page 10

SCENES IN MAIL ROOM

THE LAST-MINUTE RUSH AN AVALANCHE OF LETTERS HIGH SPEED SORTING

Between. 5 o’clock and 7 o'clock at the end of an average business day 50,000 to 70,000 letters are received in the Chief Post Office, Wellington, for despatch to all parts of the country. Trains have to be caught, and s the southern express steamer will not wait after 7.45 p.m. Hence the necessity for fixing a definite closing time for posting, only just sufficient to enable that last-minute avalanche to be systematically handled with the certainty that every letter in it. will start on its proper journey without delay. Behind the posting boxes at the chief office towards the end of the day is to be seen an interesting example of team-work, enabling the last-minute rush to be handled without fuss or error. Not only are letters piling into the posting boxes at tne office, but chauffeurs are constantly arriving with the results of 5 o’clock clearances from all over the city. Everything is dumped upon a table for the first stage that of separating the large packages, which have to be hand-stamped. This is a comparatively rapid process, the operators using (.fate-stamps which resemble light hammers, giving much greater facility than is possible with the ordinary date-stamp used in the clenched hand.

But this class of stamp could not possibly cope with the rush of 70,000 letters in the limited time available before their despatch. Therefore, all normal size letters are put through automatic date-stamping machines. The sorter picks up z a neat bundle of several hundred letters all assembled with the stdmp uppermost, places them on the tray of the automatic stamping machine, and gently presses tne pile against the rubber rollers. Then the letters'swiftly turn into a ribbon running past the inked datestamp. It is impossible to follow the course of any individual letter in this continuous stream, because the machine deals with 750 every minute and deposits them in another neat pile ready for the next process of sorting in geographical order. At carefully fixed intervals the machines are stopped to change the time on the date-stamp, because the Post Office makes this alteration, every hour and also whenever a mail closes. This point is frequently of great importance to the public when questions arise as to the time when remittances were posted just prior to the date on which a penalty for late payment of accounts is likely to be imposed. High speed motor postmarking machines are in use in Auckland (three machines), Wellington (three machines) Christchurch (two machines), Dunedin (two machines) and the following offices, each of which has one. machine: Gisborne, Hamilton, Invercargill, Hastings, Napier, Nelson, New Plymouth, Palmerston North, Timaru, Wanganui, and Masterton. In addition, 44 other offices are- equipped with postmarking machines worked either by hand or by foot, and these are capable of a good output. It is with their aid, plus smart well-organised work in the mail-room, that the “last-minute” rush of posting can always be coped with, so that all letters get away by the first available means of transport.