CHRISTMAS MAILS

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18237, 22 November 1924, Page 13

CHRISTMAS MAILS

fiN al despatch today.

f dverv dav ihis week more Aim u C sual acHvity has been noticed Ttbc posting those 1 idiich is inscribed "Beyond fl Zealand' ; -an.l as the week io a close 1 lie activity itC *' d A notice, lettered iu r:,ir-l pasted ill a promi«t position on the wall of the posting gives the clue to the unusual of letter and newspaper post'TUieh has been going on. The fco i« luc P cncil has ljCt ' n tcllhlg "J'd sundry that the Christmas mail «r England » to close to-day at. G •Consequently everyone with rolaf?; E * or friends in the Homeland has SS posting Christmas greetings in shape or form--letters, or post- ,/< or Christmas cards, or copies of f illustrated Christmas numbers of Jit ''Weekly Tress" and other newswas a time when \tlic closing t thfl outward mail carrying Christmas Meetings to relatives and friends 111 fht Homeland involved a considerable Lint Of extra work on the postal !ieort. 1,1 t,IOSC dfl - vs practically lasted 011 the actual day that 1 closed, not because they could it Po»t beforehand, but just bocnu'ft !i e y did "ot know that it made any difference to anybody to post at any "to time than an hour or so before L mail was announced to close. It as not quito bo bad in tliO oarly Lg Of the city, but as population increased so did mail matter, and it tri found necessary to educate the nubile in the matter of posting early L mails within tho Dominion, as well a lot those for tho British Isles and otkflf lands overseas. There is now a biff difference compared with tho state o {thlngs some years ago. Most people lure taken to heart the appeal of the pjparttnent to post early, and the postal jffleers do not now look forward^with tfce Mine apprehensive feelings to the dosing of the Christmas mail for England as they did in former years. Despite these altered and improved conditions, there is always a rush of gall matter 011 tho last day: thorg arc, uparently, cj fairly large number of people who cannot get out of the old Satom of delaying the posting of their Bail for the Homeland to tho last posllblo minute. For the fact that tho list day rush is not nearly so strenuous II it used to be, the postal officers arc Jul/'grateful. Of course, provision is made for the rush and extra staff is provided. Even yesterday the ordinary itiff was augmented in order to deal expeditiously with tho Christmas mail natter. To-day it will bo further augf minted, so that there will bo no waiting, no delay, in despatching the final portion of the mail. Big as tliO final day's mail matter is expected to be, it would not, when Kelt packed 011 the motors that will coivcy it to tho ferry train this evening convey an idea of tho total amount of Christmas mail matter posted in Christ church. Every day for some Mme jtoat, as letters, papers, and parcels jiave keen" posted for despatch by the outgoing mail for the British Isles, via Tancouv'er, they have been put in mailtogs and sont on to the General Post Mice, Wellington, to bo .'forwarded from there to Auckland, and there put jit board the Malcura. So it is at Wellington that tho mass of the Christmas lidl can be" seen. The policy and practice of tho Post Office ia not to delay fells but to forward them with all. Possible despatch—"haste, post haste!" Jo tho Christmas mail from the Clil.-J Post Offices in tho South Island had teen steadily accumulating at tlio '(lcuornl Post Office for sevoral days, pdat, and that accumulation. will revive its final augmentations from tho South Island when this evening's ferry f Steamer arrives in Wellington. ? The Christmas mail that closes to-day ft due in Loudon on December 24th, but it will be, comparatively, only a drop ill tho bucket as compared with _ the r aiaas of mail matter that the British postal officers will be called upon to leal with on Christmas Eve.