The Post Office

Southland Times, Issue 24498, 28 July 1941, Page 4

The Post Office

INVERCARGILL’S new post office will be opened today by the Postmaster-General (the Hon. P. C. Webb). The building is handsome, substantial and roomy, and will make a welcome addition to the civic amenities. It replaces a structure which had become sadly inadequate. measure of its inadequacy was, not merely a question of space and equipment, but of the increased functions imposed on it during the years. There was a time when a post office was concerned entirely with the collection and transit of mails. The invention of the electric telegraph and the founding of savings banks widened its scope. Today its services cover an immense field of social activity. It has become, among other- things, a huge tax-collecting agency. Motorcar registrations ' and radio licence fees are paid across its counters. Every quartei- the queues assemble with levy coupon books, and until the Social Security Department opened its own offices there were numerous other transactions to increase the complexity of post office organization. There are few members of the community who do not visit the post office at frequent intervals. They go to its counters to pay or receive money (mostly to pay), and they receive through it the letters and telegrams which link them in business ox - personal intercourse with the rest of the country and the outside worlds. The people of Invercargill, acknowledging its services as well as its demands, will take pride in a public building which does credit to the city. They have watched it grow, and they will feel that the opening of its doors is in a real sense a tribute to the development of their city and province.