THE POSTAL YEAR.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXII, Issue 15715, 7 September 1911, Page 8

THE POSTAL YEAR.

LARGE INCREASES ALL ROUND

RECORD REVENUE AND BUSINESS [Fnou Our. Correspondent.] WELLINGTON, September 5. Seventeen years ago Sir Joseph Ward assumed the office of Postmaster-Gene-ral. The revenue for that year was £320,058. Last year for the first time it exceeded a million pounds, marking an epoch in the history of the Department: To produce this result over one hundred millions cf letters rfnd over eight millions and a half of telegrams were dealt with. Considerable increases werp necessary in the permanent staff, which now numbers 4531, but the ro- ) venue, nevertheless, exceeded the expenditure by £123,196. The total revenue exceeded that of 1909-10 by £75,765 7s Old, and the expenditure exceed'd t,he expenditure of 1909-10 by £56,609 12s 9d. Postal matter delivered in Now Zealand, including that received from abrcacF during t':o year, reached a total cf 100,325,930 letters, 7,895,251 postcards, 50,301,836 other articles and 1,281,253 parcels, in all 569,657 money orders for £2,457,522 18s 5d were issued, ar.d 449,773 for £2, 126,CSS 16s 7d were paid. The increase in the number of orders issued as compared with last year was 30,917. ■ During the year 1,666,959 postal notes of a value of £524,942 18s 6d were field, being an increase of 17.82 per cent in number and 17.27 in amount as compared with the preceding year. The number of British postal orders sold increased from 54,360, valued at £29,676 11s lOd. to 67,769 for £35,270 8.3 9d, and 19,911 orders for £13,183 16s 6d wore paid, ns against 18,326 for £12,411 16s paid during the previous year. The number of old age pensions paid was 186,857, as compared with 177,839 in the previous year, the respective amounts being £383.392 10s 8d ar.d £362,495 11s. The total number of telegrams forwarded was 8,559,055, an increase of £712,165. The number of bureau communications was 2,031,376 as against 1,757,869. On March 31, 1911. there were 11.316 miles of telegraph lines and 37,212 miles of wire. The length of submarine cables within the dominion was 368 knots. Seventy-six pest offices were established arid thirteen closed, the number open at the end of the yeaf being 2257.