THE DEAD LETTER OFFICE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19730, 1 September 1927, Page 6

THE DEAD LETTER OFFICE

MISDIRECTED MISSIVES.

POSTAL OFFICIALS' TASK. / 1 MANY FORGETFUL SENDERS. ' PACKAGES AND LETTERS. [BY TELEGBAPfI.—OWN CORRESPONDENT. J WELLINGTON, Wednesday. In every year over I,ooo,ooo'letters and postal packets cannot be delivered to the persons for whom they are intended. As the New Zealand postal service deals annually with over 200,000,000 things sent through the post, it means that about one postal missive in every 200 fails to reach its destination. Last year there passed through the 'dead letter office 741,248 letters and ' 324,478 other postal packets which, for some reason or another, could not be delivered to 1 the addressees. Of this total of 1,065,726, rather less than half, 517,771 to bo exact., was returned to the senders without much trouble, the latter having taken the precaution to write or stamp on the outside of the packet, " if undelivered, ' please return to —." The remainder had to be opened, but in the case of 51,496 letters there was «nly something as vague as, or more vague than, the signature or the sender's christian name, ari'd the writer also failed to mention from what address he was writing. Thus, 31,496 letters "senders unknown and contents of no value" were destroyed. There were last year 324,478 packets Or parcels containing a wonderful and miscellaneous collection of articles—silk stockings, handkerchiefs, every conceivable article of men's and ladies' wear, books, boots, etc. These were disposed of by auction. Recently the clerk of awards in Auckland handed in 2270 large registered rolls in connection/ with an award. The post • office returned more than one-third of them in the course of time, the firms to ■whom this rolls were addressed being no longer in existence or traceable. During the year 20,659 letters were received without any address upon them at all. Added to these were 6454 newspapers and 4893 other articles, which people in a moment of forge tfulness dropped into a letter box without putting any address upon them. Imperfect addresses, which no amount of ingenuity could supplement sufficiently to enable delivery to be made, accounted for 34,508 postal packets not reaching their destinations, and 39,085 newspapers found their way back to the publishers. Letters addressed to persons on the *■ black list " numbered 1338.