CHRISTMAS CARDS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 74, 24 February 1938, Page 7

CHRISTMAS CARDS.

| THE TELEGRAPHIC RIVAL. The Christmas and New Year greetj ings telegram service of the Post Office has become so well established that it appears to be making inroads on the time-honoured Christmas card. During the recent Christmas and New Year periods the number of greetings telegrams lodged throughout the Dominion was 380,502, representing an increase over the previous year of 38,880. This was a rise of i 1.38 per cent, both in volume and revenue. Ihere were 311,033 Christmas greetngs and 69,479 New Year messages. It was in 1933 that the Post Office made its Christmas and New Year telegram greetings service more attractive by providing appropriate “received” forms in colour. The result was a, remarkable increase in the traffic, which more than doubled the next year, the 1932 total of 66,188, rising in 1933 to 161,089. Using the telegraph as a rapid means of conveying good wishes has continued to grow in popularity, for the recent Christmas business shows an improvement on that of 1933 to the extent of over 200,000 messages. Greetings telegrams are not confined to the Christmas season. Telegrams containing birthday greetings, congratulations and such like communications, are delivered by the Post Office on attractive forms and in special envelopes, all the year round. As a further development of this facility, it is now proposed to provide the sender with pictorial forms on which to write such special telegrams.