CURIOSITIES OF THE LONDON POST OFFICE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 658, 24 March 1879, Page 2

CURIOSITIES OF THE LONDON POST OFFICE.

Thb twenty-fourth report of the Post-master-General has just been issiied, and contains a large quantity of interesting information concerning the working of one of the great departments of the public service. The improvement in the system of Returned Letter Offices, which was begun ih lß7f, has been furthur extended during the past year by the establishment of two more offices, and the Postmaster-General purposes to extend the system. Respecting the work of these offices the report gives the following particulars : — Taking advantage of the information afforded by the covers, the experiment has been tried of returning to the senders, direct from the principal offices in the London district, without passing through the Returned Letter Office, all letters, book packets, &c, which have the senders' names and addresses stated upon them. The experiment has worked satisfactorily, and the PostmasterGeneral points out that it is desirable that letters, &c, which cannot be delivered to the addresses, should again reach the hands of the senders without delay. *

But it u not only letters and newspapers that the Post Office has to deal «.* t A ,of tho e xperiences of the officials are thus narrated :— The Post Office continues to be used as a means of transmitting articles of almost every variety from one parti 1 of the country to the other. The following articles, among others, were observed during the year :— A dormouse, four white mice, two goldfinches, a lizard, and a blind worm, all alive ; cutlery, medicine, varnish, ointments, perfumery, articles of dress, a stoat, a squirrel, .fish, leeches, frogs, beetles, caterpillars; and vegetables. Many of these being prohibited articles, weresent to the Returned Letter Office. A snake, about a yard in length, which had been committed to the post for transmission in a box, was observed to be at large on the floor of one of the night mail sorting carriages on the London and North-Western Railway. After a good deal of conf tjsion and interruption to the work it was ; killed, A small box which reached th^ ; Returned Letter Office ih Liverpool was found, on being opened, to contain eight living snakes. A cheque for £9 15s was found in a pillar letter-box in Birmingham, but the owner, who was traced through the hank, was unable to - explain in anjr way ho.yr it had got out of his possession. " ; The following anecdote seem* to rival that concerning the famous magphi ot jackdaw : —

Complaint having been made last yea* that certain letters which ought to have reached a bookseller in a country town had not been received, it was concluded, after inquiry, that they had been duly delivered, but had subsequently been withdrawn from under the street door, which was furnished with a slit to receive letters, but without a box to retain them. During recent alterations in the shop, however, when it was necessary to move the flooring under the window, the discovery was made of thirty-one letters, bix post-cards, and three newspapers, which had been carried thither by rats. The . corners of the letters, etc. , bearing the stamps were nibbled away, leaving no doubt that the gum upon the labels was the inducement to the theft Several of .the letters contained cheques and money orders. The* following are given as specimens of the applications addressed to the Post Office by persons both at home and abroad, which the Postmaster-General publishes to show that in some quarters a very v&gue notion exists as to the 'scope df postal operations : —

May 1877. Dear Sir,— l write to ask you for some information about finding' out persons who are missing— l want to find out my mother and sisters who are Melbourne in Australia I believe— if you would find them out for me please let me know by return of post and also your charge at the lowest.— Yours, &o. June 20, 1877. My Lords and Gentlemen, — I humbly beg your consideration if there is no law to stop persons from Calling all manner bad names day after day as it is annoying me very much in my calling as Gardener & Seedsman ; as I have applied to the office a for a summons for a little protection and they tell not, so I think it is rather too hard for me as I have done all the good I have had the means to do with the Hospitals and Institutions and charitable purposes both in and elsewhere if needed, but I suffer from lameness with a ulcerated leg not being feble for laborious hard work although I wish to do as I would be done by. Please to answer this at your leisure. 3 Sep 1877. Sir,— Will you do me a favor of dropping me a line to say if you know of an HerbaUst or Greengrocer that oould send me a parcel of Mithridate Mustard — It grows at Hatfield by the river side and in the street of Pecham on the Surrey side. As lam a stranger, if you will kindly see if you can get any one to send it I will send a post office order or stamps for what it will cost before they start it by train ; or if you will get it I will send it to you. I will send you some partridge* for- your for your trouble if you will kindly let me know. It don't grow in anv part of— -shire that I am aware of —We have the common hedge mustard growing here but that wont do what the gentleman wants it for.