SEASONAL RUSH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26638, 8 December 1947, Page 6

SEASONAL RUSH

TELEGRAPHED GREETINGS SPECIAL LOCAL ARRANGEMENTS Every Christmas Eve the operating room of the Telegraphic Branch at the Chief Post Office becomes flooded with a last-minute surge , of seasonal telegrams. Huge piles of written messages accumulate, and, as it is not possible to deal with all of them in the limited time available, a certain number cannot be dispatched or delivered before Christmas Day. >' A Proud Record The superintendent of tlie operating room is unfailingly-strict. No telegram. must ever be lost, and it is file proud record of the Department that in the past four years only one message has been permanently mislaid. The painstaking thoroughness of efforts to locate this message of goodwill will not soon be forgotten by the staff. Two gigantic wastepaper bins were prospected but without success. The search was then carried to the last consignment of waste delivered to the paper mills and it was only svhen this last resort had been completely but unavailingly combed that the search was abandoned. Complicated, precision-built equipment copes with the receipt and dispatch of the telegrams at an operating speed of 360 words a minute, but in the same room as this modern machinery are the inevitable Morse keys which are necessary for maintaining contact with the smaller country post offices. Expert Operators One of the older- members of the local staff, although discounting the story that some of the legendary expert Morse operators could “send and Receive at 90 words a minute and read a book at the same time,” states that a few of the “ old-timers ” became so efficient that they could talk intelligently to a visitor while operating the key at 30 words a minute. ! To meet the local increase in telegraph traffic during the Christmas period extra -machine printing outlets will be arranged to Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, while addition Morse facilities will be installed at some of the larger country Offices, especially those which have become holiday resorts. In the delivery section casual assistance will be engaged to assist in the delivery of telegrams during tne busy period.