POST AND TELEGRAPH REPORT

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 248, 23 July 1925, Page 10

POST AND TELEGRAPH REPORT

SAVINGS BANK RECORD DEPOSITS 135,795,141 LETTERS DELIVERED The report of the Post and 1 elegraph Department for the year ended March '3l last, which was presented to Parliament yesterday, shows very satisfactory progress in all brandies. Ihe excess of receipts over expenditure was £-173,193, ’compared with £568,370 last year. The receipts from postages was £988,386 less than the previous year, but this was expected, as. penny postage operated over the whole period and over onlv six months of 1923-2-1. However, the Postmaster-General, Sir James Parr, expects that with an increased volume of business the earlici figures will be reached. "Towards the end of 1921 contracts were let by public tender for all inland mail service contracts, the annual pavment for which exceeds £-10. There was keen competition in many instances, and a saving of £9OOO was effected. A further reduction in contract prices is expected when fresh contracts are let, at the end of three or four years for the North and South Island respectively. The rural delivery system was extended during the year especially in the Canterbury district, where 51 post offices have been closed, and rural delivery routes now aggregate 843 miles. The majority- of settlers in Canterbury are now prodded with a daily delivery which, generally speaking, reaches them before 1 p.m. The Department’s fleet of motor vehicles has greatly increased, and at the end of the ’ vear numbered 461, with sixtv more vehicles on order and a further number of light trucks required for telegraph and telephone construction. ■ Altogether twenty-one new telephone exchanges were opened during the year, and 13,304 new connections were made, the latter being a record. The waiting list was reduced from 4086 at the beginning of the year to 3622 at the end. More liberal terms to country subscribers have led to many extensions in rural districts. The conversion during the year of 8000 of the Auckland telephone exchange systems from manual to automatic, working in one operation terminated a large undertaking, which may be classed as the most complex, and one of the largest electrical engineering works yet undertaken in the Southern Hemisphere. A •building destined to become the central automatic telephone exchange for Wellington was completed during the year. Considerable reductions in cable rates to and from various countries were effected during the year the concessions representing the reduction between 16 and 18 per cent. Savings Bank Record. Money orders issued exceeded the last year’s total by 60,000 in number, and £300,000 in value. In the earlier part of the year other investments tempted a number of Savings Batik depositors to transfer some of their deposits resulting in an excess of withdrawals. • However, the first quarter of 1925 showed an excess of £405,577 in deposits. Out of a present estimated population of 1,324,966, no fewer than 735,148 are depositors in the bank. This must be easily a record for any bank in the world. Earlv in 1924 alternative tenders were called "for the English mail services via Vancouver, San Francisco, and Panama, but no tenders were received. By negotiation with the former contractor, the Union Steam Ship Company contracts were subsequently arranged for five years from April 1, 1924, at the former rates, viz., £20,000 and £25,000, for the Vancouver and San Francisco services respectively. The contract time between Auckland and Vancouver was speeded up one day (18 days) and the time between Wellington and San Francisco, three days (eighteen days). Some of the principal statistics for the year are: Articles delivered 214,711,487, including 135,795,141 letters. The 1923 figures were: 105,862,921 and 129,436,663 respectively. Letters showed an increase of 4.89 per cent., and averaged 103.7 per head of population. Postal notes numbered 2,846,333,. and were valued at £860.000. Ordinary telegrams numbered 5,827,745; value, £493,288, Toll communications 8,612,412; value, £314,393. Total telegraph and toll messages 15,410,390; value, £941,962. Cable messages forwarded were 284,251, and received 251,936. Radio messages forwarded and received increased 16.91 and 13.7 respectively. FREE SCHOOL BOOKS Raising the question of free, schoolbooks to those children attending primary schools, Mr. Witty (Riccarton) was informed by Sir James Parr, Minister of Education, that the Department had already done a great deal to relieve parents of the expense, of providing primary school books inasmuch as all reading matter for standard classes was provided through the medium of the “School Journal” and supplementary | continuous readers. The cost to the State at present was not less than £lO,OOO a year. “The number of text-books in other subjects lias been restricted as much as possible, the authorised list now containing only five books, all of which are uniform throughout New Zealand,” said Sir James Parr.' x “Tliis obviously cheapens cost to parents. Further, in all cases where parents are unable to afford to purchase books these are provided free.” Mr. J. A. Lee (Auckland East) assumed the role of literary critic when commenting on the reply of the Minister. The object of Mr. Lee’s critical dissection was the “School Journal,” which the member lor Auckland East thought might be improved. “I like the poetry,” said Mr. Lee, “and the articles dealing with New Zealand fauna and flora, for instance, are quite interesting and useful, but there are other features which are too much of the blood and thunder type. The ideal journal from Mr. Lee’s standpoint was “an informative eduative ‘newspaper’ from the point' of view of the children.”

Sir Janies Parr (Minister of Education) held a different view, and told Air. Lee so when speaking on the subject later. “I don’t agree that there is too much ‘blood and thunder’ in the journal,” said the Alinister, who went on to say that he and Air. Lee looked at Imperial matters differently, but he (the Alinister) believed in inculcating a robust and sound spirit of loyalty in the children. He was the present Minister of Education, and the “blood and thunder” would not be removed from the “Journal” while’he was in office.

The Alinister of Lands, the Hon. A. D. AlcLeod, stated yesterdav that Crown mortgages under section (2) of the Discharged Soldiers’ Settlement Amendment Act had been reduced by £683,310. The Revaluation Board had endeavoured to bring down the amount of the Crown’s charge against the land to the present day ascertained value of the security