MAIL FOR TROOPS

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 52, Issue 3298, 9 August 1943, Page 6

MAIL FOR TROOPS

PARCELS SENT TO PACIFIC STAFF WORK ALL NIGHT SPEEDY DISTRIBUTION The biggest parcel mail by a New Zealand Army postal unit with the Dominion forces in the Pacific has just been delivered to troops in New Caledonia. Thirty thousand parcels, in nearly 3000 bags, came tohand in one . ship and were unloaded on to the wharf in the wee small hours of the morning. Night work on the mails is no new I adventure for the staff of the postal unit. Their job is to get the parcels,, or letters, away to the men in the quickest time possible, and the jol) comes before sleep and meals. So though the clock showed 2.30 a.m. when the ship’s winches started to unload this mail, the staff was ready for it. K. V. Halliday, formerly of Whangarei, L. W. Davis (Wellington), and A. Auld (Dunedin)- had the assistance of two men from another part , of the island to deal with the particularly heavy consignment, and. as each waiting truck was filled thpy sent it off to the port post office for separating and despatch. Footpath Piled High As dawn broke, the footpath outside the New Zealand post office was piled high for a distance of 30 yards, with a mass of mail bags, yet within a very short space of time the way was cleared: and the first convoy of trucks well on the route to the field post office. The last bag came off the ship an hour before midday, and the same last, bag was cleared by 3 p.m. Considering that a certain amount of. sorting is always required at this end, this was no mean performance. By night time troops in nearby areas were opening their parcels, while in outlying areas the time of receipt varied from one to three days, depending on the distance to be travelled and the distribution facilities available.