A CARELESS PUBLIC.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 24, 13 September 1911, Page 8

A CARELESS PUBLIC.

VALUABLES THAT GO ASTRAY. POST OFFICE EVIDENCE. A cheque for £-1880 was posted loose in a posting-box at Christchurch last year, nos is a sample or cue care lessiiess displayed by some persons who post letters w • •so peculiar! i>s form s ..ch a ■•einar'cable icaturc of the annual report of the Post and lon-graph .Department, -resented to Parliament yesterclav. Other articles of value found in letters opened in the Dead Letter Office represented a total of £11,803, and included 708 post office orders, £177!); 38 Dank clraus, tdO-xi; 718 cheques, £0027 ; banknotes, £133, besides dividend warrants, promissory notes, postal notes, and so at. The Dead Letter Office also dealt with large numbers of gold and silver watches, watch chains, gold rings, bangles, broodies, steamer tickets, and passage order from Auckland to eohdon, a, passage order from Sydney- to Md bourne, and a quantity of otivu' valuables. In fact, so great was the carelessness of the posters that no fewer than 179,850 letters were opened and returned to writers through the Dead Letter Office; 45,551 were returned unopened to other countries; 559 were reissued; 21,200 were destroyed; 174,179 were returned by the Chief Postmasters; making a total ot 424,339 letters as compared with 428,766 in 1909. Further, 41,642 other articles were returned to foreign countries; 5704 were returned to the senders; 204,881 won returned by C'iief Postmasters. A total of 5855 letters were wrongly addressed; and 5901 unclaimed registered letters were handled. Ninetynine letters with libellous addresses were dealt with.