Telegraph (Brisbane),
Saturday 11 February 1899, page 2
Postal
Reforms. Posting
Letters. Collection and Delivery
The
Postmaster-General (Hon. W. H. Wilson) has found that increased facilities for
posting must lend to a proportionate increase of business in the postal branch
of his department. The advances already made in this direction by the
establishment of the tramway car posting system, and the proposition to extend
this system to omnibuses whore the proprietors are willing to accept a
reasonable remuneration for placing their vehicles at the disposal of the
department, not only in Brisbane, but in other towns of the colony, do not meet
the requirements of residents in the suburbs and sparsely populated localities.
The Postmaster-General has therefore directed that a departmental rule shall be
issued requiring all letter-carriers to accept from residents in the districts
where they are employed letters for posting that are fully stamped, and to
convoy such letters to the nearest pillar-box, post office, or other posting
receptacle, regard being had to the most speedy means of transmission of the
letters to the office for which they are intended. Provision must however, be
made that the curriers shall not be required to accept letters for posting from
persons who reside within a quarter of a mile of any posting place, and also
that they shall not be retarded in their work of delivery by waiting for
letters to be posted.
Mr.
Wilson has had the system in vogue in certain of the larger cities of the
United States in connection with the delivery of correspondence, and the
collection of letters for the post by the use of boxes which provide for this
double convenience, brought under his notice. So far back as 1892 a commission
was appointed by the United States Postmaster-General, for the purpose of
examining and reporting upon certain boxes submitted to his department for this
purpose, and in consequence of the report brought up, and of subsequent tests in
actual working, it was decided that the use of the approved box was not only a
distinct convenience to the residents, but was also beneficial to the post
office, as it provided for prompt delivery without waiting for personal
attendance of persons to accept their list, etc. This system is, however,
advantageous only in cities and large towns where it is incumbent upon the
carriers to call regularly when making their deliveries and from where the
house to house delivery is continuous, and is not adapted to those localities
where the houses are at some distance from each other and where the calls for
delivery purposes are irregular. It must be understood that the post office
does not provide such boxes. These are supplied by the persons requiring this
service at their own expense, and only approved boxes are taken cognisance of
by the department.
Mr
Wilson has decided to obtain boxes of the authorised patterns from the States,
and also to call for tenders for supplying them in quantities, and if they are
found to answer they will be supplied at cost price to persons desiring to use
them in suitable and approved localities. Contrary to the British practice no
charge is made for this collecting of letters from private houses by the
carriers. It. is worthy of note that the Queensland Post Office was the first
in the colonies to adopt the modern system of looked private boxes for the
delivery of correspondence at the post office, and the only Australian office
that has utilised the American system of sorting the letters directly into the
boxes, in which they travel to their destination, and also the simple and
effective means in the travelling post offices on the railways.
