CHRISTMAS MAILS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20725, 19 November 1930, Page 13

CHRISTMAS MAILS.

THE NIAGARA'S SHIPMENT. RECORD QUANTITY TAKEN. TOTAL NUMBER OF 1477 BAGS. A record (.'liris(inns in;iil from New Zealand was despatched to England, via. Vancouver, liy the R.M.S. 'Niagara yesterday. Tlio mail, which was from all parts of New Zealand, totalled 1384 bags of letters and 93 bags of parcels. This consignment beat (ho previous record of 1237 bags of letters and 73 bags of parcels established last year, when tho Aorangi took tho Christmas mail for England from Auckland. Tho mail despatched yesterday was the last from New Zealand which will reach England in time for Christmas. The letters and parcels for Ibis mail had been coming forward for somo days and tho postal officials,bad been dealing with tho rush steadily for several days, sorting and bagging in readiness for the arrival of the, vessel. All Monday evening tho posting boxes at tho Chief Post Ofiico and at tho suburban post offices were receiving their contributions and during tho night extra staff was required to cope with tho inrush. Thcro was an even greater rush yesterday morning when tho latecomers, who had delayed the writing of letters to the last possible minute, thronged tho vestibule at tho Chief Post Office in Queen Street. Rush in Last Hour. So great was tho crush between nine and ten o'clock (hat officials were stationed in (ho entrance to control the queue, which it became necessary to form and a further detachment of men was required to clear the receiving boxes from the inside as (lie stream of letters and parcels flowed through tho posting slots. Ever ready to accommodate tho public, the post ofiico authorities extended tho time of posting for about twenty minutes, although 10 a.m. had been given as the closing timo for tho mail. A start had been mndo to send the accumulated bags of mail to tho Niagara shortly after she berthed on Monday morning, but as llio stack of bags was reduced at tho post offico more bags were being made ready. Tho mail vans were again busy yesterday mortiing and tho last bag was sealed and delivered to the ship just at eleven o'clock, tho advertised time of sailing. Even then there were people who bad failed to post before the lato fee box at llio post office closed and many of their letters were handed over tho rail of tho ship as she was moving away from tho Prince's Wharf.

One interesting facL about this record mail is that practically half of it was from tho Auckland district. Tho Auckland contribution was 600 bags of letters and 61 bags of parcels, while last year tho Auckland share was 620 bags. Tho increase of over 100 bags of mail matter sent this year was accounted for to somo extent by tho relatively larger number of letter packages sent. Another Mail To-day.

Ono reason advanced by a postal officer for this was that owing to the increased difficulty of sending money out of the country, many residents of New Zealand who had been in the habit of sending money gifts to friends or relatives in Great Britain had decided to send presents instead. Some idea of the vast amount of mail matter sent away may be gained from the fact that on the average the letter bags contain approximately 2400 letters.

The mail put aboard the Niagara included 431 bags from southern head offices. This portion of the mail arrived by the Main Trunk expresses yesterday morning and as there was not time for the Auckland office to sort it tho bags were sent straight to the ship, where the mail will be sorted and rebagged by the mail agent during the voyage. Tho departure of the Christmas mail by tho Niagara has not altogether relieved the pressure at the Chief Post Office. Another mail is to be sent bv the Federal Line steamer Hertford, which is to sail at. noon to-day. This mail will close at 10 a.m. and will reach London before the New Year. Tho bags taken by the Niagara contained many hundreds of copies of tho Christmas number of the Auckland Weekly News. The Hertford's mail will contain another heavy consignment of these Christmas numbers, tho postage by this ronto being one penny, whereas those sent by the Niagara had to bear postago to the amount of sd.