BUSY DECEMBER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23671, 1 December 1938, Page 9

BUSY DECEMBER

WHAT THE POST OFFICE EXPECTS SOME IMPRESSIVE FIGURES During December, every branch of the Post Office workE at high pressure because this great institution is able to facilitate in many ways the pleasant activities associated with the festive season. There are presents which send up the parcel post figures to great heights, the ordinary correspondence, including Christmas cards, and the telegraphic method of forwarding greetings. Last Christmas in a week the four chief post offices of the Dominion sold £12,00 worth of stamps. They handled inward over the counters 81,00 C parcels and despatched 27,386 bags of mails. These figures are exclusive of the business transacted at hundreds of other offices. Throughout the year, postal business has been growing and much larger figures ara, therefore, anticipated this Christmas. An estimate of the number of letters likely to be posted in time to be delivered in England prior to Christmas places the figure at not less than 900,000. Christmas and New Year greetings by telegraph will probably exceed the last year's total of 380,500, and the department will, of course, be carrying on its normal telegraphic business involving the handling of at least 500 ' 30 messages durthe month. Telephone traffic also shows the Christmas spurt. The social use of the telephone traffic lines commences ' j expand early in December and reaches its highest point by Christmas Eve, when there is a heavy drop, suggesting that all the goodwill messages have been exchanged and that thou-.ands of the department's customers are commencing to enjoy i holiday without thought of the daily tasks with which the telephone associated Monetary circulation increases during December, and the Office, which touches human activities at so many points, demonstrates this too in its grcati volume of business. Last December there were 340,000 separate transactions in connection with the Post Office Savings Bank, and 2500 of its depositors carried their ash resources for holid ing by savings bank letters of credit. Postal notes paid during the month numbered 325,000 The Post Office will be utilised towards the end of the month to -distribute superannuation payments and the various forms of nensions. the lastnamed involving thousands of transactions reoresenting an expenditure of £572,000 Overseas inward mails will be heavy just before Christmas, and some of this, year's arrivals come very close to the point of highest pressure in the department. No fewer than three overseas mails reach New Zealand on Boxing Day, while the prior arrivals in Christmas week are as follows: December 19.—Awatea arrives Auckland with English letter mail and Australian mail December 21.—Wanganella arrives Wellington with English letter mail and Australian mail. December 23.—Orford arrives Auckland with English letter mail and Australian mail.

December 23.—Monterey arrives Auckland with United States mail and Canadian letter and parcels mails. Every postal official takes a pride in clearing up the piles of Christmas parcels, letters, and telegrams in good time. Postmen's deliveries are expanded by the use of a good deal of auxiliary help, and the telegraph delivery staffs are also strengthened. But the task of keeping time would be impossible if the great floodtide of busines rises to its highest point too near the final date. Early action is, therefore, stressed, not only to assist hard-workins post and telegraph staffs but also to guarantee the department's customers that the messages and oresents they entrust to the Post Office will reach the recipients before Christmas.