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Christmas (card) comes early

For a pile of Christmas cards postmarked December 25, 1998 have already been delivered across the Island.And Santa Claus would have to put his sled in overdrive to keep up with the Island postal system.

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For a pile of Christmas cards postmarked December 25, 1998 have already been delivered across the Island.

And Santa Claus would have to put his sled in overdrive to keep up with the Island postal system.

One businessman, who got a card with the Christmas day postmark at the end of November, said: "I was a bit surprised when I saw it.'' And he speculated that the new PLP Government had resulted in "not only a quickening of pace from slow to fast, but possibly warp speed at the Bermuda Post Office''.

But the businessman added: "Not even Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise could have achieved this incredible speed of delivering a Christmas card some 26 days prior to its date of posting.'' And he said: "Normally, you might expect to see a two week delay -- not a delivery four weeks in advance.'' The card -- understood to be from Island firm Independent Management Group -- arrived at the businessman's office on November 30.

Yesterday Postmaster General Clevelyn Crichlow said the premature Christmas Day cover was a mystery.

But he added: "It's a happy sort of coincidence, it being a Christmas card franked Christmas Day.'' He said the franking machine used was not a Post Office-based machine, but installed in the firm which sent the mail.

Mr. Crichlow added: "It certainly looks like a mistake made by the company.

They reset these things every day, so whoever did it may have got the date wrong.'' Mr. Crichlow added that a frank bearing a future date should not go through the system.

He said: "When it comes into us, my people most times will spot it was not correctly franked and send it back to whoever it was.

"But we didn't catch this -- it's certainly not supposed to be franked except for the day it's going out.

"We should have caught it when it first came through.'' And he asked firms which use franking machines to make sure the date is right when the machines are reset.

A spokeswoman for the firm said it could have been an error in the franking system.

She added that the majority of the company cards which go through the Post Office are headed for the United States.

The spokeswoman said: "I'm hoping it wasn't a big batch involved. It's hilarious really, but we were trying to get our cards out early.

"We wanted to avoid the Christmas rush by getting in early -- we certainly got in really early.''