BIG HATS BY POST.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 109, 22 April 1911, Page 4 (Supplement)

BIG HATS BY POST.

A GERMAN INNOVATION. Few Germa.n Ministers, hare been subject to more general attack than the Postal Secretary. Herr Kratke, but he has ensured to himself a body of formidable allies by adapting his department to the caprices of fashion, and so enlisting on his behalf the sympathies of the fair sex. The Dresden Post Office has of recent years been called upon to handle an ever-increasing number of cardboard boxes of very light weight, but absolutely gigantic dimensions. It is hardly necessary to add that they contain ladies’ hats.. These boxes were found to shake down very badly with other parcels conveyed by post. As they were very fragile they could not be flung in at hazard among other packages in a van. and their size and number made it difficult to stow them away with proper care. At last the problem has been solved by the construction of a special type of light van, covered with brown sailcloth, which occupies itself exclusively with the collection and delivery of hats. Possibly this is only a commencement of a general development of the means of transport, for it is stated to be frequently necessary to put on an extra luggage van on the railways for the accommodation of modern headwear, and a hat train may be as common in the future as the milk train and fish train are to-day.