3-011-918 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Post Office of Auckland, New Zealand: arrival of the "Home" Mails, 1864. "The mail-steamer from Sydney comes here once a month, bringing letters and papers from England. She usually arrives about the 18th or 20th, and her coming is the signal for a dense crowd to assemble at the Post Office, in Prince's-street. For three days after the mail comes in the Post Office is completely besieged. There is here no post delivery every hour as in London; people have to come and fetch their own letters. Some persons, on receiving their letters, open them and read them on the spot. They cannot read them amidst the throng, but they stand a little apart, under the verandah, or they sit down on the kerbstone to peruse the eagerly-expected message. That man whom you see with his back towards you, and with the muslin round his hat, is not, as you might imagine, a postman, for here no such officials exist. He is a gentleman who has ridden into town for his letters, and what looks like a post-bag, suspended from his shoulders, is a havresack, which is a common article of personal equipment...[here]. The Post Office...is a long, low building, roofed with shingles or wooden tiles. Two natives, who have got no letters from England, are lounging off to the left". From "Illustrated London News", 1864.