P. & T. SERVICES

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 218, 3 June 1918, Page 6

P. & T. SERVICES

IMPORTANT CURTAILMENTS

NO MIDNIGHT CLEARANCE OF MAILS ■ FEWER'DAY DELIVERIES POST OFFICE BANK HOURS SHORTENED.

On July 1 next the Post and Telegraph Department intends (o curtail several of tho services • given by it to the public. The decision to do so. was arrived at after a careful survey of the losses in staff sustained by the enlistment of men tor active service with the Expeditionary Force. Up to tho present .well over 2300 men have actually left the Department for service—a number well above tho quota due. The Department has tried every expedient possible to enable it to release a maximum number of men for active still afford the public reasonably effectivo facilities. Although the Department was necessarily composed* of a large number of juniors eligible for military service, it did not hesitate to arrange the release of every officer of the First Division who enlisted or was called up for service. Exemption wa3 sought tor some twenty wireless men, and then only at the request of tho Navy. But for this request these men would have been replaced as it became necessary, as tho Department has all along 1 had to train and supply for service in Mesopotamia a large number of wireless experts. The Wireless Troop in Mesopotamia is entirely composed of men of the Post and Telegraph service, for the most part specially enlisted men who would otherwise noj: yet have been called by ballot. | Of the Second Division men a large number enlisted for special telegraph and postal duty at the front, and in no case has the Department failed to release the man concerned. Although in the ballots for men ■of, Classes A and Bof the Second Division a layge number nas been selected up to date, only thirteen men have been exempted fiom'service. In Class A 186 men were called. -. Of these exemption was sought for ten; fiflv failed to pass the medical test, whii-) 126 have proceeded to camp, or do so at a very early date. It is clear that a very special effort has been made to release men for active service, and the is to be congratulated on the patriotic spirit displayed by the permanent head oi his Department. Many commercial men have anticipated a curtailment of the' facilities afforded by this Department to the public generally, and it is a source of congratulation that the curtailment comes only after four years of war. It is clear that tho Department has decided to' curtail services only because the release of men for service with the forces would otherwise be■ endangered, and although the public may find some of the restrictions. irksome, the'majority will accept them without demur, realising that the alteration means the continuance ot the Department's _ policy to release as many men as possible. On the beginning of nest month the midnight clearing of posting-boxes throughout the city will cease. Ihe latest clearance "in the city area will bo not later ■ than 7 p.m., and ■at .the same time a clearance will be made at all suburban Post Offices. In the residential and suburban areas there will be only two clearances daily oi posting-boxes-one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Where now five deliveries are made-daily by letter-car-riers, there will be in future only three deliveries;' where now there are three the new arrangement will provide tor two and where there are now two only one delivery will be made. It is intended to mate the first delivery-the only delivery in future for many-at 9 a.m. instead of 8 a.m., to assure the early, delivery of matter received from the south. vi The closing of mails at an earlier hour is also part of thejiew plan. All inland mails usually closing beiore 9 a.m. will, under the new arrangement, be closed at 8 p.m. the previous evening; and mails closing after 9 a.m. at a time vet to be determined, but not more thanthree hours before the departure of train or steamer; Mails for beyond the Dominion, and parcels mails within the Dominion, for dispatch before noon on any day, will close at 8 p.m. the previons day; those for dispatch after noon not moro than four hours .before .lie departure of train or steamer. In Wellington (he Post and Telegraph Office counters will not open until 9 »•*•."»* will close at 8 p.m. In t]ie Money Order and Savings Bank branch the hours lor business in future will be those ol commercial banlts-i.e., 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. onlv Telegraph offices now open to the public from 8 a.m. te midnight will m future be open from 9 a.m. lo 8 p.m. onlv; those now open from 8 a.m. vi 8 p.m. will be open, in future from & «..sa. to 5 p.m. only.