CHRISTMAS MAIL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22611, 26 December 1936, Page 10

CHRISTMAS MAIL

VERY HEAVY BUSINESS THE RUSH NOW OVER The rush of Christmas business at the Chief Post Office has been in all departments far in excess of anything experienced at the same time last year. The staff has not had time yet to make exact comparisons of the figures, but one experienced officer estimated the volume of mail and parcels handled this year at nearly double last year's record. A considerable slackening off is usually experienced after midday on the day before Christmas, but on Thursday the augmented mail room staff was working under pressure until 10 o'clock at night. After that there came in the mail from the north line that had been held up by the delay to the train, and about 100 bags that came by special train from Wellington. The postmen had a particularly trying day 011 Thursday, and in Dcvonport and some of the other suburbs it was late in the evening before they could complete their rounds, even with assistance. Even yesterday there was a skeleton staff on duty in the mailroom at the Chief Post Office, and among other mattors they had to deal with 100 bags of second-class matter from the South and a small Australian mail of 23 mail bags and 11 bags of parcels that came in by the Kaiwarra iti the afternoon. Many of the telegraph boys did not have their Christmas Day as a holiday, but were required for the distribution of telegrams, which were mostly belated messages conveying the season's greetings. The new attractively designed greeting telegrams have been very popular this season, and have been used in hundreds of instances to take tho placo of a Christmas card. For a day or two now the postal staff can enjoy a comparative respite with a sense of hard duty well done.