The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-08-09
PLANS FOR
CARRIERS
Routes for Travel
and Sites for
Boxes.
MANY PROBLEMS
TO BE SOLVED
Great Mass of Mail on Steamer
Day Furnishes an
Obstacle.
.HE task of districting the CITY fer

F<HE task of districting the city fer
the establishment of the letter
carrier system will be completed
by the first of next week. and as soon
as that is finished there will be no
further delay in getting the men out on
the street to deliver mail to houses
direct The men who passed the civil
service examination have been notified
to report to j. W. Erwin, at the POST
Office tomorrow, when the list of car
rlers will be made up. In addition. Mr..
Erwin has met Professor ingalls, and
arranged for another examination to
be held at once for the purpose of Gre
ating an eligible list from which va
, cancies in the force may be filed.
Acting Postmaster Kenake and In
spector Erwin have gone over the CITY
and are now engaged in arranging the
, locations of the letter boxes. The pox-
es will be fifty in number and they
will be placed almost at the same
points as the police boxes. There are
five of large size for the principal
places in the city, twenty medium size
boxes for the locations of next impor-
trance, and finally, twenty-five boxes
of the ordinary size, which will be
placed in the residence portions of the
city. For the present the boxes will
be placed upon the electric light and
telephone poles. In time, perhaps, the
steel posts which are used in the States
Will be brought here and placed, to
avoid the constant necessity of moving
the boxes, which will arise from the
frequent changes of the the locations
of the poles. The boxes are OF the
late pattern, without the addition of an
indicator, which shows the time of the
next collection, as there will be no
great regularity in the collections.
One of the great difficulties which
will attend the carrier system VIII be
the necessity on the part of the men
of handling the heavy mails which
will come in on steamer day. 1t will be
safe to estimate that the amount of
letter mail to be handled upon the ar
rival of any regular steamer, where the
usual interval of say five days has
elapsed since the preceding mail, at
20, 006 pieces. This will mean large
amount of work on the part of the
carriers. The down, town men will
have the greater portion of this, so
that on such days it is not beyond a
fair estimate to say that each will car
ry at least 1000 pieces of mail during
the day.
The oldest part of this is that on
the days other than steamer days the
carriers will have to handle about 1,50O
pieces of mail of all descriptions. Thls
will show a most unequal distribution
of labor, especially when the working
of the eight-hour law comes into the
equation What mail is not handed
within eight hours must wait, for the
law prohibits the making of men work
longer hours in one day. AS all mail
must be distributed to the carriers and
made up by them according TO their
routes, the difficulties which will beset
the postal service upon the ARRIVAL oi
a steamer are evident.
The first thing IN evidence as
stumbling block is the fact that there
are some 10000 people who have their
mail delivered through the o9o boxes.
In some boxes the mail for as many as
thirty-five people is placed, and most
of this comes addressed only to the
CITY. All the distribution is mace from
orders. in the face of which the per
cantaqe of error is very small. The
fact that there is no sub-address VIII
be the greateSt difficulty In the way
of the speedy and successful lnauS
ton of the delivery system. 1t VIII De
several months before the correspond
ents of the residents OF the CITY nave
come to realize that there must De
street and number address TO secuie
rapid delivery of the letters anu "
make the way of the service easier
the receivers of letters who want
olick delivery will have to so INFORM
their friends and business connections
THE Incoming accustomed to tne
names of the persons in the var lous
districts of the city Will pc the III %
task of the carrier and the dlstrioulln
clerk as we'll and there VIII oe iieii O.,
and yexatious delays before all WIN
,lx- I
CIV that there will be instances Where
the delivery of letters at first VIII de-
Law their receipt long beyond the tiiiis
reouire6 when the letters were piaceu
in the boxes direct. Ill, ha
The troubles of the carriers WIN
pany. too, as soon as they get ou' on
their routes, for there VIII pe tl
ottoaas In the yards of the larger res
idancee and the number of transient
rasidants who occupy rooms IN Val >
narts of the city and are IN cons CONS 'i -,
Root;on will keep the carrier pusy III
kaanine in touch with his people n
r>a,iod IF adjustment will be shorI
though. for the men to De seiecle 80
no carefully chosen, ana wiz oI -,
who have some knowledge oL IN my he no
digcu,tv in their becoming pe r1ecIts
wolf acquainted within a rev
aftar they take up their Worh. %
nv uonoIulu office will be ciasseo 90
,on6-cIass office on the pasis y.
the number of people who .t are e eff This
from the central office In cues fo VI the the
class the pay of the CARRIE 81 $500 a
first year is fixed by l cav. ,,ear only.
wear This is for the first year or. ax,
- after that time expires tne pa -.
q. a5,,anced TO $3.50 a year. lhat -
- =. "u 1yir,,1m until the city grows u
yond its present size. The niANi