POSTAL MISTAKE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22822, 1 September 1937, Page 14

POSTAL MISTAKE

NOTE'S LONG JOURNEY ADDRESSED TO NEW LYNN SENT IN ERROR TO ENGLAND Although the Now- Zealand postal authorities aro called upon almost every day to deliver insufficiently addressed letters to the proper person, a business notice despatched from Newton that arrived at the correct address in New Lynn only after it had travelled about 25,000 miles seems to show that the system is not immune from error. Instead of being delivered the following day this communication spent three months on its unexpectedly protracted journey and arrived finally so generously marked with official directions and suggestions that the importance of its contents was quite, overweighed. The letter was posted from Newton to n New Lynn address on May 31; in July it was in London and later in the month the Penzance postal authorities were apparently racking their brains to find an Astley Avenue. New Lynn, there. Finally it was apparently decided to return the letter to an address 011 the top left-hand corner of the envelope and it came back to Auckland. On its face were such inscriptions as "London, S.W.", and "Try Penzance," and 011 the other side it had a Penzance inscription, "Not to be Found." A possible explanation of tho long delay in delivering the letter was offerjd by a Post Office official, who said tho letter may have become attached to the back of another bound for England. Other suggestions included the possibility of it having been thrown into the wrong classification box, or else because the sorter had been confused by an "S.W.I" after tho New Lynn