DEAD LETTER OFFICE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 18763, 30 December 1930, Page 7

DEAD LETTER OFFICE

DIFFICULTIES OF POSTAL STAFF. By Telegraph—Prr«s Aft*oplatinn WELLINGTON, December 29. Details of the difficulties encountered by the Post Office Dead Letter section show that no fewer than 12,000 letters and postcards were put in letter boxes last year without bearing any address, while an additional 23,000 were imperfectly or insufficiently addressed. The average number of letters posted per head of the population last year was 101. A particularly harassing source of annoyance to the authorities is libellously addressed envelopes. A total of 82 addressed in this manner were intercepted last year. The fact that a large proportion of the people post articles and then change their minds is shown by the number returned to the senders by special request. Over 00.000 postal packets and 265,000 other articles were returned in this way last year. During the same period 3210 letters addressed to persons or firms the transmission of correspondence to whom is prohibited, were intercepted and forwarded to the dead letter office. For ~ie most part the letters were addressed to agents of art unions and lotteries in other countries. Some were addressed to persons reputedly engaged in fraudulent business.