THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1913 THE PARCELS POST

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 19 February 1913, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1913 THE PARCELS POST

Possibly one of the greatest boons to t'lie rural dweller in .New Zealand at the present time is the parcels post. This enables the man and woman residing males from a commercial centre to despatch an order, and receive by return of mail whatever goods he or she may require. The 'system has been extended to include goods of a perishable character, and the Post Oiiice may now lie used for the receipt and despatch of almost-any article of food or raiment. It will be surprising to many to know that the parcel post system has only just been introduced into the United States, the people of which country have been regarded as the most enterprising in the world. In England, the parcels delivery has been in operation- for nianv years, and it is now, as in New Zealand, being considerably extended. An amusing paper in "Good Housekeeping," describes the London postal express as the most faithful servitor that modern housewifes know. "Daily it brings to tliem groceries' and fruit, berries, fish, meat, game and fowl, table waters and wiii°, and numberless other luxui'ies and necessities." A horse is delivered by post for three-pence a mile. /'Some day you, may be able to mail a polar bear to the Zoo for a two cent, .stamp." Th*re -ire a few accidess occasionally. Butter may disappear from its original package, and arrive merely as a companionable stain upon silk dresses, plush, albums, and other undomestic items occupying the same bag, "Another parcel that became historic was a silk lint containing eggs and a. mailed from Holybeadi to Leeds." Then rats be-' came busy once at the great Clerkenwell forwarding:.house. The administration promptly installed cats, but these wi«e creatures only fell on the plump pal'tridires and pheasants that formed part of the mail, and more destruction was reported than ever. Still, we are glad that the system as a. whole is extolWl a? "a. triumph of Anglo-Saxon efficiency:" and no doubt American enterprise will appreciate the cuteness of the Devonshire mother who "posted" her little daughter safely to a. London school, or of the old lady lost in London, who calmly went to the nearest post office, produced stamps and r.n address, and asl.-nf] fo he sent there by mail. One suffrpf'otte was said to have posted i herself to Mr Lloyd George by parcel 1 J

express. Bat she would probably be refused in these days as coming under the one forbidden head of ''dangerous articles, con traband.''