HEAVY RUSH OF MAILS

Southland Times, Issue 25550, 19 December 1944, Page 3

HEAVY RUSH OF MAILS

BUSY DAYS AT POST OFFICE One of the busiest places in the city yesterday was the mail room of the Chief Post Office, where an augmented staff worked long hours dealing with heavy inward and outward mails. Woik is going on in - the mail room for 24 hours a day at present to deal with the rush. Usually there is a break between midnight and 5 a.m., but yesterday the sorters began work at midnight in order to be ready for the postmen and postwomen who came on duty at 6 a.m., an hour earlier than usual. During the weekend heavy mails totalling 122 bags (55 of letters and packets and 67 of parcels) were received from the north, and there were also heavy mails yesterday from country districts of Southland. When the postmen and postwomen arrive at the mail room they have to sort the letters and other mail matter in accordance with the order of delivery on their “walks.” This work usually occupies about an hour, and they leave on their rounds about 8 a.m. Yesterday morning, however, over four hours was required for the job, and it was 10.30 a.m. before they set out on their rounds. Each had an assistant to help with the large quantity of mail. The number of postmen s “walks” in the city has been increased from 14 to 18. HEAVY POSTINGS All day yesterday mail matter continued to pour through the mail room. The midday express from Dunedin brought a mail consisting of 26 bags of letters and 22 of parcels. There were also heavy postings at the chief post office. Throughout the day an augmented staff at the postal counter in the main public office was weighing and stamping parcels. The number of people at the counter was never unduly large, but there was a steady stream throughout the day and a certain amount of waiting was unavoidable. It is expected that there will be heavy postings today and again tomorrow, but after that there should be an easing off. However, there will be no let-up for the mail room staff or for the postmen and postwomen, for the big rush of inward mails is expected to start tonight and to continue until the end of the week.

At the moment post office officials are too busy to examine records for the purpose of making comparisons with the figures for previous Christmas mails, but one official said yesterday that his impression was that a very large number of parcels were being posted this year.