USE OF THE MAILS

Opunake Times, 27 June 1939, Page 3

USE OF THE MAILS

NEW ZEALAND LETTER-WRITING Hundreds of millious are involved in the figures relating to the purely postal side of the work of the Post aud Telegraph Department. It is difficult to visualise the immense volume of mails handled, in a year, but some impression can be gained from

the official total of all the items handled iu the mails last year, iucludiug those posted in the Dominion and those delivered. The impressive figure reaches over 608,000,000 ami demonstrates that the volume of mail business in 1938 rose by nearly 61,000,000 articles. Nearly 100 Letters Per Head ’

New Zealand as a mail-using community probably stands at the head of the list on a world comparison, although this is difficult to determine iu the absence of exact eomparitive figures. The official estimate is that the average number of letters posted per unit of population in New Z calami last year was 98.01, and this demonstrates a constant rise in the letterwriting habit, the previous year's proportion having been 97.32 per head. Distribution of Mail Business As the greatest proportion of the business is under the heading of letters aud letter-cards, the figures from all postal districts of the Dominion m respect of these articles enable an interesting comparison to be made regarding the extent to which the different communities use the postal

They, are as follow: — « Posted and Postal district. Posted. Delivered. Auckland .... 33,509,486 67,683,483 Blenheim .... 1,458,359 3,053,6 <9 Christchurch .. 17,037,665 36,345,314 Dunedin .... 11,993,019 34,154,038 Gisborne .... 3,547,249 6,933,514 Greymouth .. . 3,389,359 4,766,58/ Hamilton .... 13,118,439 34,566,710 Invercargill ./• 6,358,435 12,503,309 Napier . 7,291.587 14,/60, 47/ Nelson 3,560,669 6,825,710 New Plymouth 5,725,657 11,590,920 Oarnam 1,553,496 3,157,385 Palmerston N. . 7,148,939 14,419,303 Thames 3,999,907 8,331,351 Timara 3,984,430 7,815,780

Wanganui .... 5,015,688 10,065,881 Wellington .. 29,039,911 57,207,319 Westport .... 803,414 1,941,564 .Rarotonga .... 53,142 101,766 Western Stermoa 91,937 187,653 Total .... 157,568,748 316,309,341 Previous year: 148,731,604 302,170,027 When the picture postcard was extremely popular many years ago, the numbers handled by the Post Office were comparatively large, but a heavy decline sot in. This has been substantially checked during the last few years, and the postcard is now increasing in favour. The total posted and delivered last year increased by one and a half millions, showing that this form of communication is again advancing in popularity. L