The post office and its story an interesting account of the activities of a great government department

The number of packets of all descriptions posted during the same year without any address and of articles found loose in the post was 427,000. Among these were bank notes and cash to the value of about £1500, and bills, cheques, and other forms of remittance to the value of about £16,000. Photo Clarke & Hyde. THE SORTING OFFICE. The final sorting of the letters, which pass through the hands of three different sets of sorters. The last set sort them into thoroughfares ready for delivery. Notice the labels above the shelves. The term “Road” is an interesting survival from the old coaching days. It would almost seem as if we had been instructing our people in the higher branches of education and that large numbers were still in ignorance how to address a letter properly or to see that it is stuck down effectively before it is despatched. The only other explanations must be that hustling and hurry in business are on the increase, and that absent-mindedness is a widespread disease. But sometimes the reasons for the apparent negligence may be quite different. A heavy letter packet was received as a “Dead Letter” from Australia. It had been posted in London some three or four years before. On opening the packet it was found to contain an old leather pocket-book filled with sovereigns to the number of one hundred. It contained no name of the sender and no communication whatever. It was kept in the safe for three years, was not claimed, and the money was eventually paid into the Revenue.