A BARGAIN SALE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23686, 19 December 1938, Page 12

A BARGAIN SALE

—. «», — FRUITS OF FORGETFULNESS LOTS FROM THE DEAD LETTER OFFICE By a recent sale of articles from packets posted without sufficient indication of either destination or origin, the dead letter section of the General Post Office cleared 'the decks for what the staff call "the Christmas handkerchief business." As the law of averages works out with remarkable steadiness in connection with large numbers, it is. anticipated, on the basis of past experience, that something like 1200 envelopes, each containing a handkerchief intended as a present, will fail this Christmas time to reach their intended recipients, and that, to make a pleasant custom even more futile, there will be no indication which will enable the Post Office to. return it to the sender. All sorts of extraordinary articles go astray in the post owing to in-

correct or incomplete addresses, and when the general assortment was made up for the last' auction there were 80 "special" bargain lots, in which at least a dozen handkerchiefs were included as a kind of make-weight. The total of the lots offered was 176. While it is only necessary to mention Christian names as between friends and relations, the Post Office, in the interests of its business of making sure delivery of everything committed to its charge would appreciate the inclusion within the gift package of the name and address of the sender There are hundreds of instances where "not found" has to be stamped on a package returned to the Dead Letter Office, where it is opened in the hope of finding some clue to the sender. But Christian names are baffling to the skilled staff, although in hundreds of instances the precaution suggested' above has enabled the sender to be traced. That some of the articles misdirected are valuable was demonstrated by the fact that a bargain-loving audience at the last sale speculated up to an average of well over 10s for the lots in the long catalogue. Undelivered letters containing articles of value are held for 12 months in the hope that an inquiry will be made, and this process frequently results in the sender being traced. Foreign letters for which the

I correct recipient cannot be found in ; New Zealand are returned unopened to ) the country of origin, and New Zea-. i land letters undelivered in other coun- , • tries are returned unopened to the ! Dominion for disposal.. Bofore the Dead Letter Office receives an undelivered- postal packet, i there have been many attempts to find • the intended recipient. It is custom- ■ ary when a letter cannot bq delivered ■ at the first attempt for the supervisor ; of the postmen's staff to submit the ' problem to all the postmen' of the i ' locality, and quite frequently:a letter ; is taken out by another postman who 1 remembers that the person named in - the address is now included" in his ! round. The preliminary method of examina- ' 1 tion at the Dead Letter Office is con- i '■ fined to. a ~'* cjlance at v.'..the opening I' ohrases-; and the signatures of letters. 1 Tf m address is ' not*; then fb"rid. the ' letter is further examined .only" by i I selected -eninr officer., but if. /his ■ • scrutiny is fruitless the letter is burnt. -' i '"':...'■'.