The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-04-02
PostmasterS Dat
and Kenake on
Subject.
AID REQUESTED
FROM PUBLIC
Special Delivery Letters and Their
Carriers---Lack of Suffi-
Gent Addresses.

An interview with Postmaster Oat
and Assistant Postmaster Kenake, yes
terday afternoon, elected the informa-
ton that the use of the special deliv-
cry stamp seems to be but dimly I'M
derstood and appreciated by the good
folks of Honolulu.
The presence of a ten cent special de-
livery stamp accompanying the regu-
lar postal rate, entities the sender to
have his letter forwarded by special
messenger at the other end to the adj
dress on the envelope.
The regulations provide Tor one at
which the letter is placed IN the gen
eral delivery or postOfiice box, as the
case may be, or delivered by the regu-
lar carrier upon signing receipt.
The carrier performing this service
is entitled to eight cents for each let
ter delivered, his total remuneration
in any event not to exceed thirty dol
lars per month. 1t is further provided
that the carrier must be seventeen
years or over. 1T is hard" said Mp.
Kenake, ito find young man suffi-
ciently responsible to carry d letter,
that oftentimeS contains money, who is
not capable of earning a larger salary
lndI ludl, DIT al events III I1OIOlulu.
There is no regular salary, and as our
deliveries of specially stamped letters
for the last quarter only amounted to
21S, the carrier would only have earn
ed a little over five dollars a month.
At present the work has been done by
our own clerks"
The total sale of stamps for the past
three months was in the neighborhood
of 500, in some instances the stamp
being substituted for registration fee,
as special delivery letters are kept
careful track of during their trans
mission.
The chief difficulty with this class OF
letters in Honolulu lies in the vague
ness of the addresses given, and in
many cases the absence and impoSsi-
bility of giving an address. A person
endeavoring to find Mr.. -, of Homo
lulu, could, if the man in question was
at all known, providing he had some
dim idea of the locality of his resi-
dence. trust to hackman to know and
find the place. This does not lie within
the scope of the postoffice officials nor,
indeed, is it their province to look up
the address in the directory, or inter-
est themselves in a search after one
attempt.
Many business men here have one or
more residences, besides their office
address, and many more, if asked for
a more pertinent address than Homo
lulu, could only answer, why. such
and such a street, three doors from so
and SOS" Thus the failure to fully
address mail of this description COM
pletely nullifies the value of the extra
stamp. For these reasons the delivery
of specially stamped letters in this city
is often delayed and will continue
to be so. despite the directOry-like
memories of the heads of the depart
ment for kamaainas, until the carrier
service has familiarized the authorities
with new names and numbered ad-
dresses, or people gain the habit OF
addressing their correspondence in
fuller detail Mr.. Kenake has another
grievance in that the public persistent
ly refuse to put on their box number.
IF the public viii but assist u.s. said
Mr.. Kenake, affairs viii be greatly
facilitated, and the spectacle of an
irate kamaaina indignant because his
mail was not distributed, and because
Mr. Dat knows his name as wei as his
own, will become less frequent"
1T is just eight years ago today"
said Mr.. Oat, reminisCently, since
stepped into the Honolulu postoffice as
an official, Mr.. Kenake following me
fifteen days later. I have been delivery
clerk in my time, and in those days
we knew every man in town, and
would have his mail ready for him be-
fore he reached the window, or would
stop him on the street to tell him of
sonally, and while know many people
yet, my clerks do not"
There are several ways" concluded
Mr. Kenake, lin which Honolulu diff
fers from Mainland cities For in
stance, in San Francisco the races are
not differentiated, while we have to
have a clerk and a relief clerk for Chi
nese, japanese, native, Portuguese and
American. If these same men took
charge of the general delivery as one
section, we could, as on the Mainland,
split the alphabet into four divisions
divide the sections, and do away with
the queue of impatient folks that line
up on Merchant street Eight years
ago forty bags of mail seemed a snow
under to US, but now we handle many
times that amount with comparative
ease, considering the circumstances
and difficulties Of the rapid growth Of
the town, and the extent of our float
ing population