CHRISTMAS RUSH AT POST OFFICE

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 71, 16 December 1937, Page 4

CHRISTMAS RUSH AT POST OFFICE

Co-operation of Customers Requested RECORD BUSINESS First indications of the big Christmas rush that will keep an amplified staff working at top speed until after the New Year, are now being felt in the Post Office at Hastings, where already mails both inward and outward are beginning to swell, and telegraph business is increasing. The real rush, however, will not eommence until the beginning of next week, and will grow steadily until Christmas Eve. The mai! room at Hastings first felt in earnest the beginning of the holiday rush when a- large English and Australian mail arrived on Tuesday for sorting aiid distribution. There will be another English mail to-day, but this is reported to be very small. The New Zealand Post Office staff of over ten thousand cheerfully faces the prospect, with many indications _ that existing records of big business will be broken. This is a timely moment to ask for the co-operation o£ customers, in their own interest, so that all the mails can be delivered well up to time. The desirability of early posting is therefore stressed. Early Posting Fays. Mail trains are fllled to capaeity ti holiday time, and there is a limit to the weight of mail matter which can be carried. For this reason it is sometimes found necessary to send some of the seeond-class mail, particularly the small packets, by a later train or by express goods, which reduces the Post Office opportunity of delivering Christmas presents in good time, unless early posting has provided a fair margin to cover exceptional circunistances; It is not only the overloaded postman who is busy just now. Every branch, of the big organisation feels the stress of exceptional demand for Post Office services, and some indication of the immense turn-over prior to Christmas can be gleaned by last year's details of four phases of the business at the four chief centres, Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin. In the six working days prior to Christmas, 1936, these four offices, in addition to many other important tasks, did the following business:-— Stamp saies £11,219 Parcels posted 69,565 Mail bags forwarded .... 24,373 The weight of the mails forwarded was estimated at 544 tons. There are also tho inward mails to be delivered, and the arrivals prior toi Christmas will be as follow: — December 33, Wellington, Awatea, Au'stralian and English; December 13, Auckland, Monterey, Australian and English; December 13, Auckland, Niagara, England and American; December 16, Wellington, Rangitane, English; December 17, Auckland, Strathaird, Australian; December 20, Auckland, Awatea, Australian, English air-mail; December 22, Wellington, Wanganella, Australian; December. 23, Auckland, Orford, Australian; December 24, Auckland, Mariposa, England and American. Savings-Bank Business. ' During this busy month the officers of the department expect to handle savings-bank business running into millions. For December, 1936, withdrawals totalled £2,641,239, and the deposits £2,649,410, and they are not likely to show a decline on the present occasion. The Post Office facilities for transmission of money are particularly useful at the festive sea- jn, and last December — excluding what was issued — the Post Office paid out on money orders, postal notes, and British postal orders, a total of £480,225 in cash. Just during tne last few days, because here the instant promptitude of the telegraph is so valuable, the department will be handling the special Christmas and New Year "Greetiugs" telegrams, which last year numbered 341,624.