POST AND TELEGRAPH

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2501, 30 June 1915, Page 2

POST AND TELEGRAPH

8 PER CENT. ON ACTIVE SKRVICE. The report of tho Post and Telegraph Department for tho year was presented to Parliament yesterday, and in an introductory paragraph to it the I'onU master-General (tho Hon. 11. Ileaton Rhodes) stated tiiat he eon tinned confidence of tho public in the 1.'0.51, Ullioe Savings Hank was shown by Ihe fact that tho de|josits during the past year exceeded the withdrawals by no less .than £1,301,305, raising I lit; Lalanco al, L'l edit of dc|M).sitors to Ibo sum of £19,048,029. A new anil improved parcel-iwst system had been introduced and bettor arrangements mado for l.lie transmission of telegraph messages between the.main centres by means of rel>ea.ters placed in the Wellington office. 1L was a matter for congratulation that the olliccrs of the Department had volunteered so freely for service with the New Zealand forces in defence nf the ftinnirc. If the number of women employees and telegraph messengers, none of whom were available lor scrvico, were deducted from tho total number of olliccrs, it would bo iound that 8 per cent, of tho entire male stall' was now actually on active scrvico. no fewer than .'MI. having joined the ranks.

Tlio receipts ami payments of the Department for the financial year showed Ulat the total receipts exceeded those of 1913-14 by £59,138 3s. B}d. Receipts showed: Postal branch £698,872, and expenditure £634,184; telegraph branch, Receipts £660.102, expenditure £612,665. It-ems were: Postage stamps, £646,076; money-order and postal-note commission, £20,698; paid telegrams, £347,596; telephone exchanges, £303.856. The balance of receipts over payments for a period 'of ten years to March 31, 1915, was shown as £1,086,043.

The number of articles delivered in tho Dominion, including those received from places beyond, during the year 1914. as compared with the number in 1913, was as under, 1.913 figures being in parentheses:—Letters and lettercards, 118,808,274 (113,413,664); postcards, 5,646,784 (5,733,364); other articles 55,492,801 parcels, 2,585,719 (2,199,032).

During the year there were 32 moneyorder offices opened and 8 closed, tlio number remaining open at the end of the year being 788. A total of 691,518 money-orders were issued, for £3,427,505, as compared with 690,745, for £3,357,774, for the previous year—an increase of 773 in number and £69,731 in amount. A total of 577,853 moneyorders, amounting to £3,100,500, were paid, as against 560,946, for £3,003,400, during 1913—an increase of 16,907 orders and £97,100 in amount. Order for 154,844, for £493,594, w. ere drawn for payment in places beyond New Zealand. Orders for 42,413, for £170,357, were issued at offices abroad for payment in New Zealand.

Savings-bank, figures showed that 78,519 accounts lveie opened and 03,851 closed, tlio net gain on the year's working being 24,668 accounts. The number of accounts on December 31, 1914, was 483,262, and the proportion per bead ol' population was 1 in 2.3G, as compared with 1 in 2.47 at the end of the previous year. Tlio net amount added by depositors to their savings during the year was £1,301.305, excess of deposits, plus £615,310 interest earned and credited, making a total of £1,916,615. The total amount at credit of depositors increased from £17,131,414, at the closo of the previous year to £19,048,029 on December 31 last, representing a- sum equal to £16 14s. 2d. per head of the entire population, and £39 Bs. 4cl. to each depositor. The interest credited to depositors since the post office savings banks were established, in 1867, amounts to £7,156,818. The cost of working the savings, banks amounted to 4.67 d. per transacted, or £30,000 for the year. The cost of management per cent, oil the total amount at credit of depositors was 0.16, or 3s. 2d. per £100.