RECORD MAIL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 July 1943, Page 3

RECORD MAIL

DELIVERED TO TROOPS IN PACIFIC. SMART WORK ACHIEVED. (Official War Correspondent. N.Z.E.F.) NEW CALEDONIA. The biggest parcel mail ever handled by a New Zealand Army Postal Unit with the Dominion forces in the Pacific has just been delivered to troops on this island. Thirty thousand parcels, in nearly 3000 bags, came to hand in one ship and were unloaded on to the wharf in the wee small hours of the morning. Night work on the mails is no new adventure for the staff of the postal unit. Their job is to get the parcels, or letters, away to the men in the quickest time possible, and the job comes before sleep and meals. So though the clock showed 2.30 a.m. when the ship’s winches started to unload this mail, the staff were there ready for it. K. V. Halliday, formerly of Whangarei, L. W. Davis (Wellington) and A. Auld (Dunedin) had the assistance of two men from another part of the island to deal with the particularly heavy consignment, and as each waiting truck was filled they sent it off to the port post office for separating and despatch. As dawn broke, the footpath outside the New Zealand post office was piled high, I'oj a distance of thirty yards, with a mass of mail bags, yet within a very short space of time the way was cleared and the first convoy of trucks well on route to the field post offices The last bag came off the ship an hour before midday, and the same bag was cleared by 3 p.m. Considering that a certain amount of sorting is always required at this end, this was no mean performance. By night time troops in nearby areas were opening their parcels, while in outlying areas the time of receipt varied from one to three days, depending on the distance to be travelled and the distribution facilities available.