POSTAL UNION

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20017, 16 August 1939, Page 8

POSTAL UNION

INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS N.Z. DELEGATE RETURNS The eleventh International Postal Union Congress was held 1 in Buenos Aires during April, and New Zealand’s delegate, Mr. John Madden, divisional director of the General Post Office, has returned to the Dominion and presented his report to the director-general of the department. Eigthy-th-ree separate postal administrations were' represented at Buenos Aires out of a total of 87 member countries, and over 190 persons were attached to the various delegations, though each country may exercise only one vote. The New Zealand Post Office, like all other postal administrations of the world, is l vitally concerned in the agreements formulated and' approved at these congresses, which take place every five years, and afford a regular opportunity of reviewing and where possible, improving the remarkably smooth-running system which enables every country in the world to accept letters for delivery anywhere, knowing that ail postal administrations- are pledged to facilitate mail transit and distribution for their mutual advantage.

New Zealand, for instance, can accept letters addressed to Tibet with the knowledge that the Indian postaL administration .will undertake responsibility for delivery, while New ■Zealand’s obligation, in turn, is to undertake the responsibility for correspondence addressed from any country to even the most remote parts of the Dominion. Simple Methods The Universal Postal Union has a remarkably simple method of avoiding an overwhelming mass of detail in the adjustment of payments between -all the signatory countries- for the day-to-day services rendered to each other in the transport of mails. In every country once in three years, a survey is made for a period to ascertain the average quantity of mails handled in -transit on 'behalf of other countries, and mutual payments for the ensuing th-ree years are based on these results.

The great expansion of iair mail services in almost every part of the world necessitated consideration of one of the most interesting questions before the congress, which, incidentally, had to deal with over 1100 proposals.

So -much first class mail matter is now carried by air, at rates mutually arranged 1 between various countries and the organisations conducting air transport that the original amount of business done for postal administrations toy land and' sea. transport has been thrown out of -balance.

This required 1 the examination of a;n enormous mass of statistical and! financial information, but owing to the fact that the whole of the data was not available, congress was unable -to reach final decisions, and referred -the whole question to a special transit committee. It will obtain the full statistics desired from all countries in the Postal Union, and. will meet inSwitzerland in July, 1940, to consider the facts and formulate concrete proposals- for the next general congress. This was only one of many important matters relating -to administrative methods which facilitate the smooth and rapid exchange of mails internationally.