ATHENIC'S MAILS.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 October 1919, Page 5

ATHENIC'S MAILS.

MUTILATED BY RATS. It seems that out of over 400 bags.of mails by the .Sthenic (which left London on July 12) some 56 bags and contents were very badly mutilated (by rats. Indeed, the Postal officers in Wellington state that it is the worst case of the kind that has ever come under their notice. It is not uncommon to find a ratholc in a bag of mails now and again, but on this occasion the rodents must have been starving, as they despoiled 56 bags, and chewed the contents of some of them to fragments. A bagful of residue was shown to a Dominion reporter. There were letters wholly chewed, and letters iialfcheWed. There were thousands of bits of cardboard, as though boxes had been put through a fine sausage machine, and there were bits of ribbon and lace, a fancy table centre, lady's bag (partly eaten), and a mass of paper scraps that could never he pieced together again. There must be quite a number of people awaiting letters or packages who will never receive them. How many Were destroyed no one can tell. There may he 50 letters and 20 packages, or double that numiber. The fact remains that the Athenic's rats made a feast of her mails, and probably months will elapse before explanations carry the truth to senders and those who should have received the destroyed mail matter.