XMAS. MAIL RUSH

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXI, Issue 14, 30 December 1930, Page 7

XMAS. MAIL RUSH

BUSY TIME IN HASTINGS OFFICE LONG HOURS WORKED EFFICIENCY OF OFFICIALS' The busiest time of the year for Post Office officials is that at Christmas, and many hours of hard work have to be done to cope with the rush. Thanks to the efficiency and co-operation of every member of the Hastings staff, there was no hitch and everything was finished as near to schedule as was humanly possible. This morning the Postmaster, Mr. D. M. Macintosh, supplied the following figures to a “Tribune” reporter. In the mailroom there was a busy four days prior to 'Xmas. Though the figures are below those of twelve months ago there was actually more work done by the postmen. This is accounted for by the fact that there were not so many large parcels posted this year as last, but there were a great many more packets and letters which did not require so many mailbags and hampers to convey them to the various offices. Extra labour was employed for the deliveries, but even this did not reduce the hours of the postmen for they all work over twelve hours a day just prior to the holidays. The longest period worked by one official was 15 hours 50 minutes. In the “sorting house” too, long hours were spent with the mail. The returns for the four days (December 20, 22, 23 and 24) are as follow, the figures for 1929 being given as a comparison:—

TOLL CALLS AND TELEGRAMS Equally hard-pushed were the workers in the telephone exchange and telegraph branch. For the week prior to ’Xmas Eve there was a general decrease in the returns, the figures for this and last year being as follow: —

The big rush took place on ’Xmas Eve, when last year’s figures were well maintained. A noteworthy feature is the decided increase in the number of cables received and despatched. The returns for ’Xmas Eve of 1930 and 1929 are as under :—

1930. 1929. Outward bags ..... 591 686 Outward hampers .. .... 94 223 Inward bags .... 574 730 Inward hampers .... 133 211

1930 1929 Outward calls . 5420 6220 Inward calls . 5347 6189 Outward telegrams .. . 1842 2889 Inward telegrams Outward cables . 2234 2938 . 55 118 Inward cables 49 82

1930. 1929. Outward calls 809 895 Inward calls 915 1049 Outward telegrams ... 1575 1489 Inward telegrams 1642 1683 Outward cables 47 21 Inward cables 53 33