POST OFFICE BUSINESS

Grey River Argus, 28 May 1935, Page 6

POST OFFICE BUSINESS

YEAR’S INCREASE. WELL MAINTAINED IN APRIL. An improvemetn. of £143,000 in the revenue of the Post and Telegraph Department is disclosed by the figures for the year ended March 31st last. The revenue for the year, compared with that of the previous year, was as follows:— 1934-35 1933-34 £3 343,000 £3,200,000 These figures show a substantial improvement in Post Office business, and this has been maintained since the end of the financial year. During April, the postal receipts were £B,OOO in excess of those for- the best postal month of the year, jwhich is December. During April, also, there was increased telephone and telegraph business, ordinary ‘telegrams having increased in number by 29,158, urgent telegrams by 1,311. and telephone toll calls by 131,424. Improved conditions were reflected in Post Office Savings Bank transactions, for there was a surplus of deposits over withdrawals for the month of April amounting fo £162,768. Jubilee Radio Calls. The Jubilee postal celebration of half-rate radio- calls to England, which commenced on the anniversary of Accession Day and ends on May 31st, has evidently been appreciated by a large number of New Zealanders. The radio calls handled in the first sixteen days of the concession actually exceeded the total for the preceding six months. Since the reduced rates of £3 7s 6d for a threeminute conversation commenced on M 6:h. there ha s been a total of 33 calls to and from the United Kingdom, compared with only five calls for the full month of May, 1934, six for February of this year, five for March, and seven for April. The normal charge for a threc-ml nnte radio conversation with England, which will be reinstated on June Ist, is £6 15s, an admittedly high fee, and it has been suggested that greater advantage would be taken of this attractive means of communication if the rate could be lowered. So far as the New Zealand Post Office is concerned. it would welcome a permanent reduction, hut it is only one o'" four partners in the arrangement, th« other interests concerned being the Australian Commonwealth, Amalgamated Wireless Limited, and the British Post Office, and New Zealand’s share of the fee of £6 15s is 18s, while during the concession period, New Zea land’s proportion is 9s. A Telephone Contrast.