[nzlug] Post Codes

[ronw at paradise.net.nz]

That is really silly of NZ Post. I run a small database of some 500 mail
addresses for a NZ Club. There is noway I can afford to pay that kind of money
for a club to have correct addresses. NZ Post imply that soon you will have to
have the correct addresses. I have tried looking them up on line but with the
speed of their web site (sloooow) it would take forever. The previous postcodes
were made freely available with a small executable which would access the csv
files. The only reason one can see for changing the free access is because NZ
Post intend making money out of what should be free information.
Have you any idea how many thousands of clubs, societies, groups etc are active
in New Zealand. Most of these are just a few hundred members and are run by
members. The idea that they will be expected to purchase such data is as I said
quite silly.


Quoting David Harrison <david.harrison at stress-free.co.nz>:

> On 1/09/2006, at 8:25 AM, Simon Green wrote:
> 
> > On 01/09/06, ronw at paradise.net.nz <ronw at paradise.net.nz> wrote:
> >> NZ Post have finally issued the new postcodes in a downloadabel 
> >> pdf format. I
> >> would like to be able to scrape the pdf file and get data into a 
> >> database.
> >> Anyone have any ideas on how best to rip the data out of the pdf 
> >> and into a
> >> file. The pdf is 555 pages long and of course there is other 
> >> rubbish on the page
> >> like headers etc.
> >
> > NZ Post also release the data in CSV format[1]. I would strongly
> > recommend that you use that instead of attempting to scrape the pdf
> > file. You are only asking for trouble (and way much more work for no
> > gain).
> 
> What you are after can be found here:
> http://addressing.nzpost.co.nz/Cultures/en-NZ/DataProducts/ 
> aboutpostaladdressfile/
> 
> It is called the Postal Address File (PAF) and because of the new 
> complexity of NZ postcodes it is not just a simple CSV file.
> It is a now a number of highly relational data files which can't be 
> quickly used.
> What's more NZ Post charge for its use. I believe it is about $1,000 
> a year for internal use and $3,000 a year for public use.
> 
> 
> David
> 
> 
> 
> 
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>  




-
Ron Wilson