MYSTERIES SOLVED.

NZ Truth, Issue 74, 17 November 1906, Page 6

MYSTERIES SOLVED.

Where the Letters Went to!

Letters and newspapers go astray m this country m the most marvellous manner. Complaint isn't always made, but it would be interesting; to know how many are received at headquarters of both islands during .the course of a twelvemonth. Now~ and again the dishonesty of officials has foaen disclosed m the police court, but that isn't the sole cause for the disappearance of expected missives. ; they seem to take a stroll .to Hingland, or some other part of the world, and if they have any luck they eventually reach their destination covered with post marks smelling of many foreign languages. - A queer discovery was made m this connection down at droughty AshTnirton lately. There have been any quantity of complaints there, but- it wasn't until the holder of a private box went to draw a letter from the recess the other day and it disappeared like a ghost m the night, that the mystery was solved. There is an interstice between the outer wall and the boxes running, alone the lower tier, and letters used to slip through there and

PLAY HIDE AND SEEK with their owners, and that was what happened m this case. On an investigation being made a shoal of them were found m the dust, and next day business men, and the men who were expecting appointments they had made with their best girls to be ratified, were astonished to receive what they had been expecting for quite a long time. In fact it was so lone that the , business matters had pone out of memory, and the rirls had married and were settled down, and had families, or were dead— very much dead* It was like reading an old newspaper to peruse those letters -'with their old dates and antiquated contents.. The Postal people had never -•

TROUBLED . THEIR HEADS ■ > to cover up that interstice ; it was a ye.r-" small one, but a letter can escape into a very •diminutive crevico and cause trouble. The ordinary envelope or post card is a 'very a'<nle animal, and can set anywhere when it isn't properly looked after. And when, it unaccountably disappears it is an almighty nuisance.