MAIL BAGS.

Otaki Mail, 31 March 1939, Page 4

MAIL BAGS.

BIG CONSUMPTION OF CANVAS. Mail-bags being important items of equipment in the post office, it is not surprising to learn that the department requires over 2(1,000 yards of canvas every year, for this purpose. About 5000 new mail-bags go into service annually and 1500 specially designed squareshaped canvas bags for parcels have also to be made each year. The New Zealand Post Office uses English canvas for this purpose, and all the bags are manufactured in New Zealand, mainly by private contractors, a small proportion only being made in the department's workshops. Making a mailbag, which will be constantly travelling during its useful life time, calls for specially strong sewing and the seams are neatly turned in so that when the bag is emptied, it can be turned inside-out for use on the next journey. This is a regular precaution in tlie mail-rooms, to avoid the possibilitv of mails being overlooked. A*similar type of mail-bag made of lighter canvas is used for the air mails both inland and overseas. They are appropriated' coloured sky blue, but as air mails are now so general under the ltd “all-up’’ Empire Service, the postal administrations concerned sea no further need for a special distinctive colour.

Supplies of bags for the air mail services in future will, therefore, be of ordinary canvas. The bags lor the Empire Service are made in Britain under a joint arrangement betwen the British and New Zealand Postal Administrations, which share the cost.