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

“The first payments took place on New Year's Day 1909, and during the three months ending the 31st March, 7,925,150 Old Age Pension orders were cashed, representing a total sum of £1,904,722. “In addition to paying the pensions after they had been granted, the Post Office furnished (and continues to furnish) information and assistance to any person desiring to make an application for an Old Age Pension.” And again, in his report for 1910, the Postmaster-General referred to the matter:— “The total number of Old Age Pensions paid during the year was 35,167,983, representing an amount of £8,465,231.” It will be seen from the size of these figures that the Post Office has taken upon itself a huge amount of extra business. The old people of the country have an additional reason for looking upon the Department as in a peculiar sense the friend of the poor. The weekly visit of the pensioners enables them to become known to the officials, and the pensioners in their turn grow attached to the building in which they experience weekly the joy of possession. There are few pleasanter human sights in the country to-day than to watch the faces of the pensioners as they leave the post office. Moreover, the meeting of the pensioners, all on the same errand, is having curious results. The Postmaster-General, in his wildest dreams of the possibilities of the Post Office, never perhaps saw it pictured as a matrimonial bureau in which Darby and Joan, going thither to receive their Old Age Pensions, would cast sheep's eyes at each other, and ultimately surround the dole of the State with a halo of romance. In a village near Dudley, a few months after the introduction of Old Age Pensions, two old people were united in wedlock. The bridegroom had seventy-five years to his credit and the bride admitted to seventy-four summers. They had frequently met at the post office, grew to be friendly towards each other, and discovered perhaps a touch of romantic love in their hearts. Anyhow they decided to pool their pensions.