LETTER DELIVERY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 227, 23 August 1940, Page 6

LETTER DELIVERY.

ERECTION OF STREET BOXES. SAVING TIME OF POSTMEN. From time to time the Post Office has been endeavouring to get people to place letter boxes at their gates, and now the department is losing so many officers because of the wax that it is necessary to take further steps to conserve postmen’s time. Thus in recent weeks householders in Palmerston North have received circulars asking them to erect letter boxes at their gates. Persons whose houses arc a considerable distance from the road-line were given a month in which to erect a box. Residents who are not so far from the road have also been asked to co-operate and to erect boxes also with a view to conserving the postmen’s time. In view of the circumstances which necessitate the saving of time, residents generally are seeing the need for it, and the response to the department’s appeal locally has so far been very gratifying, the Chief Postmaster (Mr C. L. Mayo) said to-day. No detailed figures are yet available of the number of boxes which have been erected since the appeal was made. It is estimated that if boxes are on the street-line the postman saves half-a-minute at each house by putting the letters in them- He does not have to walk to the front door, and (in the case of houses without letter slots) ring the bell and wait for a reply, for the letter may not be pushed under the door. Each postman in Palmerston North has from 350 to 400 houses on his round. Although, of course, he does not deliver at each house every day, the saving of lialf-a-minute for each house is very considerable. However, any saving, that can be made is fully necessary, as between now and January 1 half of the local postmen’s staff will have to go to military camp. Some persons have voiced objection to street boxes on the grounds that the contents can easily be taken from them by unauthorised persons. It is, however, most unusual to hear of the contents being taken from these boxes, but in any case a lock would prevent any danger of this.