A Postal Curiosity
An unusual occurrence as written in the local press of 9 July 1892:
On March 3rd Mr Daish one of the rate collectors for the Borough of Ryde, received a cheque for a large sum in payment of rates from a lady who resides in the Binstead road. He sent her a receipt the same evening by post, posting the letter in West street.
A few days later the lady made a complaint that she had not received the receipt for her cheque. Mr Daish wrote and explained that he had forwarded a receipt, and gave the date upon which he had sent it. He was rather puzzled the lady had not received it, as he was confident it had been posted.
Last week the missing receipt turned up, after four months! It was handed to him by an inhabitant who said it had been forwarded to him by some relatives in West Maitland, N.S.W. A local newspaper had been sent to them, and when unfolding it the envelope containing the receipt was found inside and, seeing it was a mistake, they very kindly mailed it back to England again. It has now been duly handed to the lady to whom it was addressed.
It is supposed that the paper did not go properly through the slit in the letter box, and that when the letter was posted it was thrust between the folds of the paper, and lay there snugly concealed (as the stamp was not obliterated) till the paper was duly opened by the people to whom it was addressed at the Antipodes.
It is satisfactory to elucidate a mystery of this kind, but we think the receipt which travelled so many thousands of miles out of the way will be regarded as a curiosity by the lady who now holds it, and that the incident will find a place amongst the curiosities of the Post Office.
Source: IW Observer
Image: West Street Post Box 2013 RSHG
Article: Ann Barrett