OUR SOLDIERS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 27 October 1939, Page 4

OUR SOLDIERS

POST OFFICE SERVICES EXTENSIVE CAMP ORGANISATION One of the special war activities of I the Post Office is to facilitate the con j tact with home which is so much valued i by the men now in the training camps j in many parts of the Dominion. A; large volume of mail and parcels busi j ness handled at the camps during the 1 Great War provided the Department j with experience which prompts it to j make generous provision on the present j occasion. Post Offices are being constructed at Burnham, Trentham, Ngaruawahia, and Papakura. They are to be as complete 1 as those in many fair-sized towns, for the average soldier sends and receives more than the average number of com munications. Each office will be a ! sub-Post Office under the Department’s ; direction, staffed by its permanent ’ officers. The hours of business take j into account the military life, therefore , in addition to the usual 9 a.m. till 5 p.m. opening, each office will re-open in the evenings at 7 o’clock till 8.30. Ample public space and counter-room is being provided because every kind of postal business is transacted. Soldiers will be able to send telegrams—Trentham office, although conducted temporarily in marquees, is already equipped with the Teleprinter machine telegraph apparatus—and a number of telephone boxes will be provided, there as elsewhere, as well as the usual facilities for Post Office Savings Bank, the issue and cashing of money-orders and postal notes, registration of letters, and many other services rendered by the Post Office. “We do everything except pay old age pensions,” commented an experienced postmaster in charge of one of these offices. Distribution of mail matter is to the unit headquarters of the addressee, and prompt delivery can be facilitated if senders indicate name, rank, unit and the' camp in the address. Men may be transferred from one camp to another, therefore soldiers should endeavour to keep their friends informed regarding changes of address, otherwise some delay must be caused through the necesjsity for reduction. The Post Office camp staffs will pay special attention to changes in camp personnel, in pur- ! suance of its policy of doing its part |in keeping our soldiers in touch with I home.