7,200 Parcels.

Manawatu Times, Volume XL, Issue 13523, 6 October 1916, Page 3

7,200 Parcels.

IN TWO DAYS. PRESENTS FOR THE BOYS AT THE FRONT. (From the Auckland "Star.") "You can trust Auckland people to leave everything until the last moment. They'll all come rushing in at 10 o'clock to-morrow and blame us if they miss the bus." So quoth a melancholy post office official on Tuesday in surveying the heaps of parcels for the Expeditoinary Force, which, however, were not nearly large or numerous enough to satisfy the expert judgment of the post office machine, and merely presaged an extraordinary rush at the last moment.

The mail closed nominally at 10.40 on Wednesday morning. We say nominally, for the post office, in spite of all the red tape with which it is traditionally tied up, still has some.lurking human sentiments, and there was no sudden shutting down on fond relatives of soldJer boys on the tick ox twenty to eleven. On the contrary, considerable latitude was allowed. ■ AN EXTRAORDINARY SCENE. . And the scene throughout the morning beggared description. By tramcar and ferry boat people poured into' the city with parcels) and by nine o'clock the parcels depot of the G.P.O. was besieged. An hour later and the said depot was absolutely packed by a surging mob, mostly women folk, struggling to gain entrance. The room itself was filled chock-a-block, the stairway was blocked, and people waitcM in a queue outside. Inside the office people struggled to get to the counter, and used parcels and other people's backs for writing rests for filling in the receipt cards issued by the office. Many a perspiring bearer of a parcel waited for half an hour to edge up to the counter, only to find that through not observing the regulations for encasing the goods in a canvas cover his Christmas present could not be accepted. POST OFFICE RESOURCE.

Prompt steps were taken by the post office officials to cope with the extraordinary pressure. Five extra counters were cleared for receiving the goods, the Auckland East office was thrown open for the reception of parcels, while upstairs arrangements were made for weighing at the inquiry office and for receiving at the registration department. Ordinarily a largely-augmented staff is put on to deal with an Expeditionary Force mail, but fifteen extra men were employed over and above this number. Early in the morning parcels began to arrive by the hundred from various shopkeepers who had made a speciality of packing and delivering Christmas parcels, and these were received at the back of the parcels office and promptly dealt with. One officer was solely engaged on supervision, while at the top of the stairs another official was told off to act as guide, counsellor and friend to the public. Many women struggled bravely through with five or six parcels. Christmas cakes and puddings! Heavens, there seemed to be sufficient of rich eonfeetions to make the entire force bilious for a whole month after the celebration of the coming of peace on earth and goodwill towards men.