THE Waihi Daily Telegraph. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED The Waihi Miner TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1904

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume IV, Issue 1092, 13 September 1904, Page 2

THE Waihi Daily Telegraph. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED The Waihi Miner

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1904

H«re shall tlio l'ri« tlio I'coplo'ii Hi;lit maintain Unsirol bj inßuoiiot ami iiiibrilwl l>y <ni» | Hero patriot Truth bur nl'-rious pruoupts Jr»i. Pledged to Rollsion f.iber-j. m.l Law

ONE of the best indications of the progress that the colony has been making for a considerable time is furnished by Sir J. G. Ward in an article he has jnst contributed to an Australian magazine, Sir Joseph goes back fifty years, and shows by comparison the rapid growth of the work since that time in the Department he is now controlling. From the article referred to we learn that four times as many letters were posted in New Zealand every day of last year as wero posted during the wholo of 185!). The gross receipts and payments have grown in the fifty years from £2OOO to £30,000,000, and the officials handlo more money in nine ii:imites of eajh working day now than they handled dining tho wholo of 1853. During the past eight years Sir Joseph has reduced the price of a tolegram from Is to (Id, and has reduced the annual loss on the telegraphs from £30,000 to £5872. "At present," he says, tf the profit on the carriage of letters enables telegrams to bo sent cheaply, Will the time evor come when the profit on other branches of businesssuch as the banking work—will pay for the total cost of handling letters and allow for a induction of letter postage to aid? That is, I think, ono possibility; and, as telegraph rales will no doubt fall simultaneously with postages, we may at some future time look for threepenny telegrams." The PostmasterGeneral comments on the fact that with all tho inventions of recent years tho cost of handling letters and telegrams has decreased but slightly. There is the new stamping mashine, it is true, but sorting and delivery are still by hand, The bicycles, however, have proved of great use to the Department, Sir Joseph looks forward to theliiuewhon there will be a post and tMegraph ollico, or its equivalent, in every house, and when it will be mssible for the sender of a telegram to writo his message and havo it reliveretl iu fuc simile, and that without the intervention of highly trained operators. He expects to litul tho iuvtntivo genius of the ago, too applied to the

reduction of the hea r y cost of telephono charges and ti lephoue wires. Commenting on reduction in the

postage on newspapers for thy Old Country, Sir Joseph complains Hint Queensland and West Australia still refuse to acce.pt magazines* from New Zealand except at rates that are practically prohibitive. He has a word to say, of course, about Statu enterprise in the laying of ocean cable?. His own ideal is a uniform cable rate of a penny a word, and although the toluino of business is too small at present to warrant tho reduction, he thinks that the penny rate could be adopted even now on cernun lieC lions of the ocean lines.