IN THE MAIL ROOM

Wairarapa Daily Times, 16 April 1935, Page 2

IN THE MAIL ROOM

THE LAST-MINUTE AVALANCHE. Between 5 o ’clock and 'flp ’clock at the end of an average business day, 50,000 to 70,000 letters are received in the Chief Post Office, Wellington, for despatch to •, all parts of the country. Trains have caught, and the southern express steamer will not wait after 7.45 p.m. * Hence the necessity of fixing a definite closing time for posting, only just sufficient time to enable that last-minute avalanche to be systematically handled with the certainty that every letter in it will start on its proper journey without delay. Behind the posting boxes at the chief office towards the end of the day is to be seen an interesting example of team work, enabling the last-minute rush to be handled without fuss or error. Not only are letters piling into the posting boxes at the office, but chauffeurs are constantly arriving with the results of 5 o’clock clearances from all over the city. Everything is dumped upon a table for the first stage —that of separating the large packages, which have to be hand stamped. This is a comparatively rapid process, the operators using date stamps which resemble‘light hammers, giving much greater facility than is possible with the ordinary date stamp used in the clenched hand. But this class of not possibly cope with the rush of 70,000 letters in the limited time available before their despatch. Therefore, all normal size letters are put through automatic, date .stamping machines. The sorter picks up a neat bundle of several hundred letters, all assembled with the stamp uppermost, places them on the tray # of the automatic stamping machine, and gently presses the pile against the rubber rollers. Then the letters swiftly turn into a ribbon running past the inked date stamp. It is impossible to follow the course of any individual letter in this continuous stream, because the machine deals with 750 every minute, and' deposits them in another neat pile ready for the next process of sorting in geographical order.