THE FORGETFUL PUBLIC

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3524, 14 August 1926, Page 4

THE FORGETFUL PUBLIC

BLUNDERS IN THE MAIL.

General’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 tor 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 on the part of the post office. In the remaining 1089 cases inquiries disclosed either that there had been no delay, or that 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 as the disposal of the packets. This number includes packets mislaid either before posting or after delivery. It includes also misappropriations that may have taken place either inside or outside of the post office. Actual losses amounted to .0013 per cent of the total number of articles posted.

Despite warning notices, the public continues, to post unregistered packets containing articles or negotiable value. Two recent eases of failure to register valuable packets are of sufficient interest to warrant special reference. In one case an amount of £350 in £SO 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 note. There was nothing in the envelope to indicate by whom the letter had been posted. In the course of the Postmasler-