The Press. TUESDAY, AUGUST 31, 1869.

Press, Volume XV, Issue 1989, 31 August 1869, Page 2

The Press. TUESDAY, AUGUST 31, 1869.

The report of the Poatmaater-General for toe year 1868 has appeared very late in the session, owing, we suppoee, to the fact of the office having virtually been vacant since Mr Hall's resignation at the close of the year. It is gigasd— 0? ssther, two Knee of intro-

duction about " having the honour to submit the following report" are signed —by Mr Vogcl, who in addition to hie duties as TrciiMirer has temporarily taken on him those of Telegraph Commissioner, Commissioner of Stamps, Post master-General and Commissioner of Customs ; but the report itself is nothing but a series of tables, with a few items of statistical information, compiled by the officers of the department. There really seems little reason why, if the business of the Postoffice can be properly conducted for a twelvemonth under a merely nominal head, the office of PostmasterGeneral should be continued at all; or else, if there is anything which requires supervision, it is scandalous that the place shouid be allowed to remain so long unoccupied. There are some lazy ones among the new Government. The Premier will undertake no departmental work whatever, while four places have to be thrown into one rather than that any official burden ghould be thrown upon Mr. Dillon Bell. It is satisfactory to find that the expenditure of the Post-office during the year was considerably diminished, partly by reductions in the working staff, partly by some of the inland mail contracts being performed at a cheaper rate. The revenue was thus made to come within £1300 of covering the expenditure, being £57,107 against £58,362. In the Middle Island the expenditure great exceeded the income, the excess being chiefly in Otago, where £22,145 was expended and only £13,605 received. This, however, includes payments made on account of the new post-office at Dunedin. In Canterbury the receipts were £8,525, and the expenditure £10,142. In the North Island the income was larger than the expenditure, the result prinj cipally of the receipts at the Chief 'Post-Office in Wellington, which amounted to £10,791 against an expenditure in that province of £4,497.

The number of letters received in the colony, during the year 1868, was 2,374,122; and of newspapers, 1,907,369. The number of letters despatched was 2,603,077; and of newspapers, 1,376,316. Of the provinces, Otago stands highest, having received 595,062 letters,and despatched 535,909. Canterbury follows very close (in proportion to population it takes the first place) with 539,610 letters received, and 436,125 despatched. Auckland is third, receiving 461,861, and despatching 411,812. With respect to newspapers Otago takes a strong lead, the number received being 545,450 and of those despatched 502,521; while Canterbury received 398,326 and despatched only 176,402. During the year 33,072 letters were received at the Dead Letter Office, of which 17,844 were returned to the writers, and 12,365 sent back to offices beyond the colony whence they came. The remainder, or 2732, were destroyed, as neither the writers nor the persons to whom they were addressed could be found. In these dead letters property was found, mostly bills of exchange, to the amount of £4271 2s 2d, of which only £808 Is 9d was claimed. There is no returns of letters posted without any address at all, which in England are found invariably to reach a certain proportion of the total number. It would be curious to ascertain whether the carelessness of colonists, as examined by this test, is greater or less than that of residents in the home country.

The business done in the money order offices shows a slight increase on that of the pre?ious year. The number of orders iesued was 25,854, to the amount of £118,211; while 14,598 were paid to the amount of £67,536. The amount issued on offices in New Zealand was £54,342; on the United Kingdom, £40,581 ; on Victoria, £16,333. The people of Otago make most use of this branch, the transactions in that province being nearly twice as much as in any other. Several tables are appended to the report, showing in great detail the various transactions at the Post-office Savings Banks throughout the colony, which we are glad to find are making excellent progress. The aggregate amount deposited has, we are informed, increased from the sum of £167,157 12s 6d on the 31st May, 1868, to £378,663 8s 10d on the 30fch April, 1869. The number of depositors in 1868, as compared with the population, was 1 to 66, or reckoning from the commencement of the sytem on the Ist February, 1867, 1 to 38. The deposits during 1868, including both new accounts opened and additions to open accounts, amounted to £194,535 lls 6d, and the amount of principal withdrawn to £106,567 6s Id. The average amount deposited to each account was £59 5s 6d.