STUDIES IN ERRORS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 June 1939, Page 7

STUDIES IN ERRORS

DEAD LETTER OFFICE FIGURES. STEADY ANNUAL AVERAGES. A study of last year’s work in the Dead Letter section of the General Post Office suggests that, when such large-scale operations enable soundly based averages to be determined, the level of human carelessness in dealing with correspondence maintains itself with remarkable steadiness. A careful check is made of all postal packets which do not reach the intended recipients. The Dead Letter Office in Wellington deals with this problem and ultimately reports at the end of the year the. proportion of undelivered letters compared with the total number actually delivered. In 1938, the undelivered letters constituted a very small fraction, namely, 0.38 per cent. The most interesting point about this final figure is not only its smallness but the fact that if the position for the previous year is examined in the same way the proportion of undelivered letters come out to nearlj’ the same decimal fraction. Obviously the same people would not repeat the small mistakes year after year; .yet when another phase of activity is examined it is found that the number of letters and other articles returned to the senders in New Zealand last yeai —a total of 917,117 —varied from the' 1937 figures only to the extent of being 1.413 fewer.

There were 518.570 letters returned to senders in New Zealand after the Post. Office had failed to find the right recipient at the address given. In 16,696 of these cases registered letters were concerned. The inclusion in postal packets of sufficient information to enable them to be returned to the sender if delivery cannot be made is a precaution advised by the Post Office, and this is well' observed by the average customer of the Department judging by the fact that of all the millions oi postal packets handled in the year, the number destroyed (the senders being unknown and the contents of no value) was only 32,526. The existence of prohibited lists of persons and firms to which correspondence will not be delivered is evidenced by the fact that 178 letters undei this category were intercepted.

Letters from overseas which cannot be delivered in New Zealand are returned to the postal administration of the countries from which they originate; and there were 49,829 letters (including 58'0 registered) and 56,313 other articles dealt with in this way.