SOMETHING LIKE A POST OFFICE.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXII, Issue 4335, 28 October 1921, Page 2

SOMETHING LIKE A POST OFFICE.

, Evidently Switzerland is able to teach us something anen,t the practicability of extending the usefulness of the post office (says an exchange), A British resident, in that country, writing frpm Geneva to a London contemporary, says : “The other d'ay I received a doctor’s ’bill. In the bottom corner was a number—-that of the doctor’s postal cheque account, Next time I passed a post office I stepped in, filled in a form, paid the "exact amount of the bill!, and received a receipt. The thing was done. The Swiss post office places the money ,to the doctor’s account and sends him a voucher to this effect. He has nothing further to dp except to strike-the entry off his book, and if he is busy he may let the vouchers accumulate unt.il he can attend to them. There can be no dispute about the payment, even if the payee fails to keep the postal receipt; for it is officially recorded by the State, and proof can be any time within five years. But this is not all. The writer explains that if he were the holder of a postal cheque account the matter would be simpler still. “I fill in a cheque,” he says, “hand 't to the post office (I can postdt if I please), and the sum is transferred from my account tp. his, he being notified as before..'” Thus!, a commercial man is enabled to pay a dozen or more accounts through the post office on one cheque, writing the list bn the back, and it is not ne'cessary that all the payees should have postal cheque accounts. If ;they have no accounts to which the money can be transferred a postman will 1 pay the sum in casn ■at the address indicated and obtain the receipt. lir.the first instance—that of transferring from one account to another—no charge whatever is made. For other payments . there is a small! tax, though less than pn postal orders, which are also in. use, though’ here, again, the system is different from the English, the money being paid out at the address of the payee instead of the order being sent by post and cashed by the pec-elver. In the case pf both order and cheque the sender is allowed to write a message in a space provided for the purpose on the voucher section without extra charge, Another valuable service of the Swiss post office deals with the collection of money, which traders find a simple and easy method of collecting their accounts. All this is, of course, an extension of the payment, on delivery system,, which is also in force, and according to the correspondent the Federal Council has decided on a still further extension of service, namely, to fetch parcels from the address' of! the sender flor a small charge.