FURTHER APPEAL FOR LETTER BOXES

Southland Times, Issue 24548, 24 September 1941, Page 6

FURTHER APPEAL FOR LETTER BOXES

CIRCULAR SENT TO CITY HOUSEHOLDERS A further appeal to residents of Invercargill to provide suitable letter boxes at their front gates has been made by the Post and Telegraph Department in an effort to conserve man power. Already nearly 2000 postal officers, many of them postmen, have been released for service with the Navy, the Army or the Air Force, and many more will follow. So far, through the provision of gate letter boxes for their letters, 254,000 householders, throughout the Dominion are helping the war effort by facilitating the release of postmen for service with the armed forces, and this further appeal has been made with a view to postponing the time when, as a war measure, consideration will have to be given to the question of reducing the extent or frequency of postmen’s deliveries. The saving of a few seconds at every house, it was stated, would speed the postman on his way and perhaps enable yet another man to be released for service.

Appreciation of the ready response to the last appeal was made by the chief postmaster (Mr J. Lindsay) yesterday. Mr Lindsay said that a very high percentage of the population had responded to the previous appeal, and so far the response to the present appeal had been excellent. He knew that the people of Southland responded magnificently to such appeals, especially when they knew the urgency, and he was confident that the comparatively few persons to whom this latest appeal had been made would comply with the department’s request.