MAIL BY LINERS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22206, 5 September 1935, Page 8

MAIL BY LINERS

HASTENING DELIVER! ' ' .'I SORTING DONE AT SEA' ?! THE PACIFIC SERVICE | How the system of having a ppot, t office on the transpacific mail steameri calling at Auckland and greatly assisits delivery within New Zea, land is described in a communication from the Post and Telegraph Depart, ment. When a San Francisco mail steamer berths at Wellington at 7.30 a.m., f ol instance, the people of Wellington receive their letters by the first morning delivery. In a recent Instance, the con signmeiit landed in Wellington totalled 1558 bags, equalling 113 tons measure, ment of mail matter, and yet, only two hours after the steamer berthed I everything that could be despatched bj train was on its way, the letters for delivery in Wellington had been handed to the postmen and those addressed t<n private boxes had reached their destination. The service provided is a story of the use of every available moment long before the Post and Telegraph Department achieve® its object of# delivery. The work begins 19 days before the mails risach Xew Zealand. As soon as the mail steamer leaves port for New Zealand the marine post office is opened for business;. There are a mail agenj; and an assistant at work in a fully, equipped sorting office, and the whoI« mail for New Zealand goes through their hands before the liner calls at Auckland or Wellington. Having been trained in the Dominion the officera are ablti to sort the mail in such a way that the instant a vessel reaches harbour the whole of perhaps 113 tons of correspondence can be despatched, without further sorting, to the correct destinations. The process has reached a fine point. For ins tance, in a recent San Francisco mail received at Wellington, the Auckland portion amounted to 28 tons. AH the letters came o£E the steamer sorted for Auckland City, and, separately, for six Auckland suburban officeß. Manurewa. wns provided with its own bag of msiili!. Within an hour or so of tho arrival of the vessel, trains are leaving for North Island centres, for which there in a separate consignment. Tho southern portion of the maiil has to wait in Wellington nearly 12 hours, but so i'ar as the Canterbury section is doncerned the time is profitably used in " close-sorting " the letters to be ready for delivery upon reaching Christchurch. It mi possible to use night hours for lanal sorting at Dunedin and Invercargill.4 Eight postal officers are constantly travelling on the Pacific, sorting inward and outward mails.