MUTILATED MAILS.

Taihape Daily Times, 4 October 1919, Page 7

MUTILATED MAILS.

DAMAGE DONE BY RATS.

CONSIGNMENT ON ATHENIC‘

SERIOUS POSITION REVEAL-ED,

WELLINGTON, Oct. 2.

The serious damage done by rats to lthc mai’;-.' bxoixght to New Zculand by 3 the ste.a~m'er Athenic was the subject of «:1 question asked the Postmaster£GeneraL in the House of Rcprr:-sell‘ta« tives this aft/:l'no.Cn. Mr R. P. Hudson (_Motlm‘:;a) asked iwhether any ‘inform-aztion could be given to indicnxé fho plar-:9 of origili of the mails suffex-ing damage.

In reply, the Hon. J. G. Coates said the Athenic left on July 1, with mails from all parts of the United Kingdom. The mails were pl-aeed in the bottom of the hold, and suife-red serious \damage from the depre-datiou of rats. The company had been written to asking for an explzmatioin of the occurrence, and the British postal authorities had also been informed of what had occurred. Precautions would be taken to ensure that there should be 110 repetition of the affair. “I asked the chief officer of the Athenic what was the cause of the trouble, and he said that as they had‘ brgught out no cargo the rats had tackled the mail,” was the statement made by a postal offieer, in answer to H a question as to why the Athenic’s§ mail was so b&dl_v mutilatle--l by rats. It; seems that out of over EU? 'o2T§§ of mail} by the Athenie some 56 bags and eon-E tents were very badly mutilated.

The postal Offlcers in \Vellington state -that it is the worst case of the kind that has ever come under their notice. It is not uncommon -to fin-d a I rat hole in a bag of mails now and again, but on’ this occasion -the rodents y must have been st.a-rving, as they dc-. spoiled 56 bags, and chewed the con- { itcnts of some of them into fragments.

A bagful of residue was shown to a reporter yesterday. There were letters wholly chewed and letters half j chewed. There were thousands of bits ) of cardboard, as though boxes had ! been put through a fine sausage j machine, and there were bits of ribbon j and lace, a fancy table centre, lady’s ■ bag (partly eaten), and a mass of j paper scraps that could never be pieced together again. There must be quite a number of people awaiting letters or packages who will never receive them. How many wore destroyed ro oho • can tell. There mry bo 50 letters and j 20 packages, or double that number. | The fact remains that the Athenie’s j

rate made a feast of her mails, »and pro~

b-ably months will elapse before ex‘

plana-tions carry the truth to senders and those who should have"rgce'iVed

I .he destroyed ma-il matter. The postal officials are doing all in their power to rectify the. matter. Whenever an address is clear, the l'..‘l‘llllallfS of the letter have been forwarded .cn. W/'heri -the address is missing, that of the writer is sometimes ideeipherable, and such are being for iwaréled to the General Post Office. in London, with an explanation of the iilishap. Inquiry was made as to the conditions under which mails are despatcvlred l from this end. Most of our letter mails igo by niailboats which have dry, ver- ' min-proof rooms, as provided for in the Post and Telegraph Act, 1908, for the i eartage of mails. Otherwise letters are i usually sent. from this end accommodat— I ed either in a state-room or the ship ’s' strong-room. - i The soldiers’ mail——parcels and! p;ipers——sen‘t by transport were fO-r- l warded in strong white-pine boxes, and I never came to grief. ‘ V From the Loi don end. however, our] postal authorities have no control, and ] there is evidently nothing in the Enxg-E lish Act providing for the same conditions as are enforced at this end. As long as the mails were despatehed by mailbeats across ‘ilre Zxtlantic and Pacific there was no trouble, but the recent despateh of mails by cargo‘ steamers. via Panama, made such conditions impossible. aud the mails were carried. as in the _»\=the.nic’s case. in‘ the hold. VVhen formerly small letter! mails did arrive by such steamers, they were carried in -(‘Til ’officer’s room, but in those cases the total weight would only be a few pounds, so That when the_v_had 400 or 500 pounds’ weight of I mails -t'lle_v had to stow Ithem else-)1 where than in the cabins. V ~ Only a‘ few days ago the Ayrshire arrived wit-l‘. :1 ‘II-envy mail. and :1 snecial stzifi’ was detailed to deal with it. but] to the SlI"TIl‘iS(, of v-very!*‘e the mail! W:*.s "found to have been buried under about 100 tons of cargo, causing con- [l sidm-nble drain)’ in delivery. l