CHRISTMAS GREETING MESSAGES

Southland Times, Issue 24628, 27 December 1941, Page 4

CHRISTMAS GREETING MESSAGES

TELEGRAPH DEPARTMENT HAS BUSY TIME

The staff of the telegraph branch at the Invercargill Post Office had a very busy time handling Christmas greeting messages. The figures of messages received and despatched were not available yesterday, but Mr J. Cormack, telegraph supervisor, said that his impression was that the rush of business before Christmas was greater than it was last year. The volume of business could not compare with that of two years ago, or of that handled in prewar years.

Last year there bad been a decline in the number of messages handled, principally because it had been decided to withdraw the concession of cheap greeting telegrams. This concession had not been offered to the public this year either, and once again this fact had resulted in fewer messages as compared with the volume of business in more normal times.

Mr Cormack added that despite this decrease the employees of the telegraph branch had had a very busy time. Many experienced men were on war service, and the staff now was generally less experienced than it had been before the war. However, they had managed to get through all right. Tire volume of business this Christmas had again been increased by the despatch of greetings cables to soldiers overseas. These messages began to come in early in December and the bulk of them had been handled before the Christmas rush of inland telegrams began. However, there were always some people who left things to the last minute and greetings cables came in for despatch right up to Christmas Eve.