COUNTED IN MILLIONS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 25 January 1939, Page 6

COUNTED IN MILLIONS

NEW ZEALANDERS’ LETTERS

A YEARS ACTIVITY' SURVEYED A ten-million increase in one year was the remarkable record of the Post Office disclosed in its figures relating to letters and letter-cards posted in the Dominion This growth of mails is equally well shown in other directions, 2.293,000 more parcels having been handled through the mails compared with the volume of the previous year. In the use of the mails, New Zealanders must stand high among the people of the world, although no official comparative information is available on this point However, the Post Office figures speak for themselves. Counting in all the letters, letter-cards, post-cards, circulars, small packets, newspapers and parcels posted and delivered in New Zealand in a year the total reaches the formidable figure of 547.690.000, To ascertain the business originating from New Zealanders, the total postings included in the above figures can be calculated and these amount to 262.980.000. The volume of mails bears a close relation to population as can be seen from the following details of letters and letter-cards handled in a year in the various postal districts of the Dominion

Postal business provides a good guide to the general social and business activity of a community, and these largescale figures reflected the slowing-down of the phase during the depression years. In 1931, the number of letters posted annually per unit of population in New Zealand numbered 90.55, but the average dropped in 1932 to 77.48. Now the latest available figures show that the position has been completely recovered with an average of 92.85 letters per head of population. Overseas mails constitute a very important phase of postal business for a country so isolated from the world’s centres. Therefore, it is not surprising to find from the official figures that New Zealanders send letters and lettercards overseas to the extent of eleven millions every year. Letters and lettercards arriving from overseas total approximately 15,500.000 each year—a larger bulk than the postings from New Zealand owing to the business-seeking correspondence received in heavy volume from exporting countries, particularly Great Britain and the United States of America,

Posted and Posted. Delivered Auckland 31.G 10.000 64.810.000 Blenheim 1.440,000 3.020.000 Christchurch 1G.670.000 34.970,000 Dunedin 11.630.000 23.420.000 Gisborne 3,540.000 6.710,000 Greymouth 2.180.000 4.520,000 Hamilton 11.180,000 22.590.000 Invercargill 6,000.000 12.230.000 Napier 7,310.000 14.220.000 Nelson 3,180.000 6.250,000 New Plymouth ... 5.650.000 11,060,000 Oamaru 1.590,000 3.160,000 Palmerston North 6,720.000 13,590.000 Thames 3,800.000 7,860,000 Timaru 3.840.000 7.550.0UU Wanganui 4,940.000 9.92U.UOO Wellington 26.540.000 54.090,000 Westport 760.000 1.880.000 Rarotonga 46.000 100.000 Western Samoa . 104,000 220.000 Totals 148.730,000 302,170,000