[nzlug] Post Codes

[David Hawke]

ronw at paradise.net.nz wrote:
> 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.
>
>   
Umm - the mapping of street address to post code and maintenance of the 
data set  is no simple exercise - in fact I'd suspect it is built on top 
of the spatial database maintained for Statistics which serves 2 roles
- assignment of electors to electorates
- assignment of address to meshblock for Census purposes

Remember that there are of the order of 4 million land parcels in NZ, 
and of the order of 3 million or so street addresses.

David H