CHRISTMAS CARDS ARE POPULAR THIS SEASON

Wanganui Chronicle, 20 December 1950, Page 4

CHRISTMAS CARDS ARE POPULAR THIS SEASON

Christmas greetings in card and parcel form have been pouring into the Wanganui Chief Post Office during the last few days in numbers nevei equalled before. Expressions of good cheer seem to be the order of the day Why the increased recognition oi Christmas is not clear, but it is certainly a fact. On Monday the Post Office handled nearly 48,000 letters, most of them Christmas cards. This is a record for a single day’s posting in Wanganui, j addition same 900 large parcels, small parcels and second-class mail passed through the sorting room The department is quite able to cope with the large flow of mail. Extra staff, mainly secondary school boys, have been taken on and arc doing a fine job of work. Quickly adaptable, they allow the regular staff to carry out more important duties. There are six boys in the sorting room. But the hours are long and strenuous. For the cast few days sorters and “posties” have been working from 6 a.m. till 10 p.m. Each postman has an assistnt—and he needs one. In the middle of the morning the sorting room lo n ks as if an earthquake has hit the place. Letters, parcels, newspapers, lie about in large heaps in baskets, on the floor and anywhere there is room, in a manner which, to the layman, seems to be a hopeless mess. But it is sorted. Though there are thousands more than usual to deal with, letters are sorted, transported and delivered, in exactlv the same time as h» normal neriods of the year This fact alone speaks volume for Post Office staffs. But let us follow the trail of letters nosted in the hungry sl n t at the Chief Post Office. When a mail c’oscs the letters aro gathered and nlaced Ir bundles, then fed into the electrically, driven franking machine. Obviating the monotonous job of manual starr.nin" the machine can frank thousands of letters an hour—and counts thorn ds well. Bulky letters are the only °nes stamped by hand. SORTING THE MAIL. The letters are then taken to the primary sorting table, where they are put in pigeon-holes bearing the name of the city, town, or rural district to which they are destined. They are then tied into bundles and dropped into appropriate canvas bags, which will carry them to the centres for distribution. Yesterday there was e notable decline in the number of outwaru letters and an increase in inward letters. Dealing with the latter involves a considerate amount cf v.crk. Arrived in the mail room from the railway station, the letters and parcels are segregated f n r th? postmen, contractors, private begs and those to be collected at the office counter. The mail for the nostal branch is taken to another section, where it is -ouJcfl i'd "1 roshtmen’s districts. The mail for postal b-'xes is broken down into seven divisions and l.lip work of sorting for private boxes begins. Registered packets receive special '■'ii'un -nd a full record is kept, of a packet’s progress from the lime it is first handed to a post-fl officer till its final delivery to the addressee. So then, it can be seen that though the sorting room r.t time", looks £• hopeless mers, there is nothing haphazard in the way the mail is handled. Surprisingly few •avavfls h n vo been insecurely wrapped this Christm"? i reason. Put. the few wlrse coverings slin off c-u-e unnecessary work 1o the ofifle.b and cc?.''s:ob-.t on]-’ oerasionallv. parcels fail to roach their | fed in a.t ion be-ause of non” v’rann'n"s | The P-st Office an~ee!s to the nvb’i • in r-rfl-.'' jure that parcels are secure- ' ly bound.