Alfred Schultz Album , photographer Reinhold Hofmann Traub Collection ( cropped )
Johannes ‘ Hans ’ Traub ( above ) was Postmaster for Samoa in the final German Administration . The German Imperial Post Office , in Apia ( shown on next page ), was a busy place – in 1902 it handled 100,935 items of inwards and outwards mail ( letters , postcards , parcels and newspapers ) while in 1913 this had grown to 281,679 items . Staff had to find the recipients for all this mail in a country where there were few street names and no house numbering system . ( See table opposite for a detailed break down of post office traffic growth ).
The Apia post office was a strategic communications asset whose efficient operation was crucial to the smooth functioning and expansion of settler commerce .
In the photo at right , Mr Traub is seated at the rear of a post office rowboat bringing a fresh bag of inwards mail from a ship in harbour .
( For more biographical information on Mr Traub see page 179 ).
|
1902 |
1913 |
Posted letters |
31,278 |
78,805 |
Received letters |
58,201 |
166,010 |
Posted parcels |
74 |
216 |
Received parcels |
598 |
2,278 |
Posted postal money orders ( value in Marks ) 264.017 848,370 Received postal money orders ( in Marks ) 256,862 749,863
Posted newspapers |
155 |
624 |
Received newspapers |
10,629 |
33,746 |
Phone calls handled in local network - 121,940
| To Walk Under Palm Trees - The Germans in Samoa : Snapshots from Albums | Tony Brunt
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