The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Taranaki, Hawke's Bay & Wellington Provincial Districts]
Post Office
Post Office.
The Wanganui General Post Office, at the corner of Victoria Avenue and Ridgway Street, is a handsome two-storeyed brick building with a square clock tower. The entire building is used for the accommodation of the post, telegraph, and money order and savings bank departments; the ground floor contains the postal department, and the upper floor the telegraph and telephone department. The exchange has 680 subscribers—the fifth largest in the colony—and about seventeen borough connections. The office is a first grade chief post office; there is a staff of 105 persons under the chief postmaster, and 106 sub-offices. The cable under Cook Straits, connecting the South Island at Wakapuaka, is worked from this office. The cable, though laid in the year 1877, is, owing to the sandy nature of the marine bed, as sound as when laid.
Mr David Miller was appointed Chief Postmaster at Wanganui in the year 1902. He was born at Napier, where he was educated, and entered the service of the Post Office as a cadet in 1873. Some years later he was transferred to Christchurch, where he remained for seventeen years. He held various positions, including those of accountant, chief clerk, and subsequently inspector, before receiving his present appointment.