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Clutha Leader, Volume XXXV, Issue 2125, 26 January 1909, Page 3

Speaking at a social tendered to Mr H G. Ell, M.P., at Christchurch the. Prime Minister said that they in NewZealand were subjected from time to time to strong criticism as to whether the country was progressing. The view of some was that the country had reached its apex and was likely to go down. On the other side, it was sometimes a good thing to take a glance at what he would call one of the bread-and-butter departments of the Dominion, and to study its barometrical indications as to whether the country was going ahead or going backward. That afternoon he had received a telegram giving the results of the operations of the postal and telegraph service—a service widely used by all classes of the community. Sir Joseph then read the telegram, which was to tho effect that the postal and telegraphic revenue for the December quarter of 1908 showed a very satisfactory increpso upon the corresponding quarter of the previous year. The excess of postal revenue was £15,000, and of telegraph revenus £lo,ooo,—total, £23,000. The total revenue for the quarter was £250,833, or just over the quarter-million. The business in all branches showed'a steady increase. The development of land settlement was a question of vital importance,, and the greit work of land settlement, of olosor land settlement, and of smaller land settlement was progressing in a way that must be regarded by the most sceptical as satisfactory in the extreme. At the present moment there were some B0 surveyors employed preparing Crown lands for settlement.