SHIPPING, DOCUMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17696, 3 February 1921, Page 5

SHIPPING, DOCUMENTS.

DELAY ?N TRANSMISSION,

AMERICAN POST OFFICE ACTION.

The inconvenience caused to importers through shipments of goods from America arriving here before the documents relating to such goods are received by mail, has been the subject of a communication by the Government to the United States post office authorities. The substance of the United States authorities' reply is given in a circular received by the collector of customs at Auckland from the headquarters of his department. The reply states that the postal laws and regulations of the United States post office provide that consignees' letters may t>e handed to the master or purser of the vessel conveying the goods to which the letters relate, and that most of the merchants in San Francisco are familiar with this method of despatching shipping documents. In future cases of delay in transmission of shipping documents the United States post office expresses its willingness to bring under the notice of the senders the fact that letters containing these documents should be handed to the captain or purser of the steamer conveying Che goods. In order that this may be done the envelopes of any such specially-addressed letters that may have been delayed in transit, together with the particulars of receipt, should be forwarded by the addressees to the secretary of the Post and Telegraph Department, for submission to the United States post office.