THE CARELESS PUBLIC.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVII, Issue 5005, 26 July 1926, Page 1

THE CARELESS PUBLIC.

BLUNDERS IN THE MAIL. LOST AND FOUND. In the course of the ,PostmasterGeneral’s annual story of. things that were lost and (some of them) found, he sets Out that there were 5670 inquiries for postal packets, and in more than half of those cases the packets were either traced Or satisfactorily accounted for during the •year. In 1020 cases the sender was responsible for delay, in 1185 cases the responsibility rested on the addressee, while in 427 cases, it was found that delay was due to failure o>n the part of the post office. In the remaining 1089 cases, inquiries disclosed either that there, had been no delay, or there had been delay, but that it was not possible to fix the responsibility. In 1949 inquiries no evidence of any kind could be obtained a& to the disposal! of the packets. This number includes packets mislaid either before pofsting or after delivery. It includes also misappropriations that may have taken place either inside or oiu|side Of the post office. Actual losses amounted to .0013 per cent, ote the total number of articles posted.

Despite, warning notices the public continues to post in unregistered packets articles of negotiable value. Two recent cases, of failure to 'register valuable packets are of sufficient interest to warrant special reference. In one case an Amount pjf £350 in £5O bank-notes was forwarded as an unregistered packet, and in the other case a particularly flimsy envelope, opened in the dead (letter office, was found to contain a £lO bank-note. There was nothing in the envelope to indicate by whom the, letter had been posted.