LETTER WRITING IN DOMINION

Southland Times, Issue 23375, 6 December 1937, Page 9

LETTER WRITING IN DOMINION

HANDLING OF MAIL BY POST OFFICE The letter writing habit of New Zealanders is extremely well developed and the Post Office has to deal every year with mails of enormous proportions. The figures for last year show what is now regarded as inevitable in these times, a further advance on those of the previous period, the total number of letters and letter-cards, postcards, circulars, packets, newspapers and parcels posted and delivered in the Dominion reaching the formidable figure of just over 534,000,000. This includes both articles arriving from overseas and those posted and delivered in the Dominion, so that the extent of the use of the mails by New Zealanders only must be gauged from the separate statistics on the same basis relating to postings in the Dominion. These total 261,590,000. Some contrasts between the relative amount of postings in different parts of the Dominion are possible by taking out of the analysis the particulars relating only to letters and letter-cards, which constitute the principal feature. In the various postal districts of the Dominion and its associated Pacific islands the letters and letter-cards handled last year were as follows: —

The figures of postcards are not included in these details, but one point of interest about them is that the total number handled last year showed a decrease, and if the comparison is extended over a longer period the decreasing popularity of the postcard becomes more marked, last year’s total being 468,000 fewer than in 1916, when the picture postcard was in great favour.

Although letter writing maintains impressive proportions among New Zealanders, it is actually not so extensive as in former years, for when the millions quoted above are reduced to terms of letters a unit of population the results appear as follows:— Letters posted per unit of population. 101.9 1931 90.55 1932 77.48 1933 81.79 1934 85.47 1935 86.53 1936 89.51 The reduction in the percentage shown in 1931 was due probably to the raising of the minimum postage rate to 2d as an expedient during the depression. However, New Zealand resumed penny postage in June 1932 after which the figures began to rise, although they have not returned to the 1930 level. The principal reason for the apparently tardy recovery is probably that letter writing has to some extent been replaced by the more frequent use of the telephone, especially for social purposes after business hours when reduced rates apply on the toll lines. The number of toll calls handled last year was 13,143,171 and the number handled during the year ended March 1917 was only 5,040,672.

Posted and Postal District Posted Delivered Auckland 28,479,811 60,731,667 Blenheim 1,417,147 2,913,356 Christchurch 15,465,672 33,179,472 Dunedin 11,260,976 22,863,749 Gisborne 3,326,470 6,520,895 Greyniouth 2,044,191 4,335,350 Hamilton 10,438,960 21,152,351 Invercargill 6,462,042 12,847,499 Napier • 7,156.474 14.399 56? Nelson 3,002,850 5,958,231 New Plymouth 5,30b,2o3 lv i Oamaru 1,596,180 3,115,178

Palmerston North 6,492,604 13,233,832 Thames 3,528,387 7,478,619 Timaru 3,686,213 7,340,877 Wanganui 5,812,592 10,856,930 Wellington 25,502,190 52,510,344 Westport 747,305 1,839,110 Rarotonga 46,080 101,616 Western Samoa 79,101 152,494 TOTALS 141,853,498 292,098,761