RECORD IN TELEGRAMS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18283, 29 December 1933, Page 6

RECORD IN TELEGRAMS

GISBORNE POST OFFICE .100 PER CENT INCREASE The Gisborne Post Office established a record lor Christinas telegraph traffic, which showed an increase of almost 100 'per cent, oil last year. For the four days preceding Christmas, 12,461 telegrams were sent and received by Gisborne people, compared with 6966 on the corresponding four days last year. These figures include a large per can ©ye of special greeting telegrams, wliicjj tlhrice exceed fast year’s number from Gisborne to other offices.

As was expected, the busiest day was on Saturday, but Friday was also particularly busy. In addition to telegrams sent and received by Gisborne residents, large numbers of telegrams were handled by the Gisborne Post Office between other district post offices and all parts of New Zealand. The increase in these on last year was not so large as in the actual Gisborne traffic, but nevertheless was substantial. In all, 2743 through telegrams were dealt with, compared with 1876 for the corresponding four davs last year.

The following table shows the position of business bandied by the Gisborne telegraph office during the four days preceding Christmas, together \vith comparative figures for last year:

In the figures for inward and' through traffic the ordinary messages and greeting telegrams are given together.

BIGGER MAILS HANDLED 200 PARCELS A DAY The Christmas mails this year were considerably heavier than last year at Gisborne, both in regard to letters and parcels. There was a difference this year in the size of the parcels posted. The Post Office staff was kept busy during tin l whole week before Christinas, and on an average about 200 parcels a day were handled. Last year, the packets were small generally, but this time they were very much larger, a suggestion that tin l Christmas 'buying of gifts for friends in other parts had turned to a different type of article. One point noticed this year was that there were more late postings. Whereas the postal rush was spread over about 10 days last year, it was confined this time to the final six days, during which local and country business was greatly in excess of last year’s. Two big mails received just before Christinas from overseas helped to swell the number of parcels and letters received at Gisborne, and the English mail was far larger than for the preceding Christmas. The bulk of the mails from outside come via Napier and on this route 387 bags and 123 hampers of mail matter went out from Gisborne last week, and 401 bags and 216 hampers were received.

1933 1932 Outward messages .. <1857 2905 Outward greetings ... 3339 1245 Inward traffic ... 4315 4316 Through traffic .. 2!748 1873 Totals .. 15.209 8842