N.Z. POST OFFICE

Grey River Argus, 9 February 1943, Page 6

N.Z. POST OFFICE

7.' HANDLES £1,000.000 A DAY. : CHRISTCHURCH, February 8. ■ Hon. P. C. Webb stated that New Zealand Post Office officials handle £1,000,000 daily. Last year the total value of transactions of the department", including business for other departments, was approximately £392,000.000. The Post Office had been largely responsible for the conduct of the national savings campaign, and in eighteen months nearly 300,000 accounts Jiad been opened. Letters and parcels posted and delivered exceeded 540,000,000 annually. almost two million a day, and maii dispatched to the New Zealand forces overseas comprised 77,0001 b, of letters and 4,000,00001 b of parcels. Foi- mail deliveries the number of rural box-holders to-day was .34,000 compared with 24,500 in 1935, an increase of 40 per cent. Of the 387,000 households in New Zealand 280,000 were served by postmen and 34.000, by rural mail delivery. Therefore, 314,000, or 81 per cent, of the total households, had their mail delivered to. the gates. New buildings provided since 1935 numbered 114, while 72 existing

buildings had been enlarged. Ex- * penditure on buildings in 1941 was £347,000 compared with £lOB,OOO in 1935. an increase of over 200 per cent. Radio licenses now totalled 371,000 compared with 152,000 in 1935, an increase of 144 per cent. That meant that about 95 per cent, of New Zealand households had radio sets. Telegrams transmitted annually exceeded five million. For the first time the number of Post Office Savings Bank accounts exceeded the million mark, the number being 1,040,000. The total amount at credit —£71,500,000 —was also a record. Military allotment warrants paid last year numbered more than 1,300,000.