BUSY DECEMBER

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 29 November 1938, Page 4

BUSY DECEMBER

WHAT THE POST OFFICE EXPECTS SOMt IMPRESSIVE FIGURES During December, every branch of the Post Office works at high pressure because this great institution is able to facilitate in many ways the pleasant activities associated with the festive .season. There are presents which send up the parcel-post figures to great heights, the ordinary correspondence, including Christmas cards, and the telegraphic method of forwarding greetings. Last Christmas in a week the four chief post offices of the Dominion sold £ 12,000 worth of stamps. They handled inward over the counters 81,000 percels and despatched 27,386 bags of mails. These figures are exclusive of the business transacted at hundreds of other offices. Throughout the year, postal business has been growing and much larger figures are, therefore, anticipated this Christmas. An estimate of the ..umber of letters likely to be posted in time to be delivered in England prior to Christmas places the figure at not less than 900.000. Christmas and New Year greetings by telegraph will probably exceed the last year’s total of 380.500, and the Department will, of course, be carrying on its normal telegraphic business involving the handling of at least half a million messages during the month. Telephone traffic also shows the Christmas spurt. The social use of the telephone traffic lines commences to expand early in December and reaches its highest point by Christmas Eve, when there is a heavy drop suggesting that all the goodwill messages have been exchanged and that thousands of the Department’s customers are commencing to enjoy a holiday without thought of the daily tasks with which the telephone is associated. Monetary circulation increases during December, and the Post Office, which touches human activities at so many points, demonstrates this too in its greater volume of business. Last December there were 340.000 separate transactions in connection with the Post Office Savings Bank and 2.500 of its depositors carried their cash resources for holidaying by savings-bank letters of credit. Postal notes paid during the month numbered 325,000. The Post Office will be utilised towards the end of the month to distribute superannuation payments and the various forms of pensions, the last-named involving thousands of transactions representing an expenditure of £572,000.

Overseas inward mails will be heavy just before Christmas, and some of this year’s arrivals come very close to the point of highest pressure in the Department. No fewer than three overseas mails reach New Zealand on Boxing Day, while the prior arrivals in Christmas week are as follow: — 19th December (Awatea) arrives Auckland with English letter mail and Australian mail. 21st December (Wanganella) arrives Wellington with English letter mail and Australian mail. 23rd December (Orford) arrives Auckland with English letter mail and Australian mail. 23rd December (Monterey) arrives Auckland with United States mail and Canadian letter and parcel mails. Every postal official takes a pride in clearing up the piles of Christmas parcels, letters, and telegrams in good time. Postmen’s deliveries are expanded by the use of a good deal of auxiliary help, and the telegraph delivery staffs are also strengthened. But the task of keeping time would be impossible if the great floodtide of business rises to its highest point too near the final date. Early action is. therefore, stressed, not only to assist hardworking post and telegraph staffs but also to guarantee the Department’s customers that the messages and present* they entrust to the Post Office will reach the recipients before Christmaa.