DELAY TO LETTERS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22464, 7 July 1936, Page 11

DELAY TO LETTERS

CARELESS ADDRESSES TASK FOR POST OFFICE Out of the huge total of 154,000,000 letters posted in New Zealand last year. 603,192 were returned through the dead letter branch of the post office to senders, many of whom apparently had themselves to blame. For example, 10,568 were letters and letter-cards posted without addresses and 19,138 were imperfectly or insufficiently addressed.

Many letters which go to the dead letter office are destroyed because addresses have not been found, generally because the contents of the letters give no clue to the identity of the writers, or the sender's address at the head of a letter is so indefinite that a signature confined to a Christian name is of no use in tracing the writer. All undelivered postal packets, excepting those with the name and address of the sender on the outside, go to the dead letter office, the only branch of the post office where they may be opened. Many letters held there find their ultimate destination following an inquiry for a missing letter. Possibly the address was inadequate, but an inquiry leads either to discovery of the correct address or to the return of the letter to its sender. According to information received from the Director-General of the Post and Telegraph Department, there is a small proportion of serious irregularities in posting correspondence in New Zealand. The General Post Office last year found it necessary in only 115 cases to intercept letters which bore a libellous address and to return 2431 letters addressed to persons or firms on the prohibited list. It is suggested that if let-ter-writers in this country would show the name and address of the sender on the outside of the envelope, preferably on the back, of every letter posted, the dead letter office would be saved a great deal of work and letter-writers would avoid disappointments, misunderstandings and. occasionally, heartbreaks. The Canadian and American public almost invariably follow this practice.