MILLIONS OF LETTERS

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 157, 6 July 1936, Page 10

MILLIONS OF LETTERS

RECORD FOR YEAR

THE POSTAL DIVISION. BIG INCREASE IN RETURNS. One branch of the New Zealand Post Office where business runs into millions is the postal division. Its record of work done last year has been compiled in detail, and from tho mass of figures can be extricated the outstanding point that the postal packets handled in the 12 months exceeded 526 millions and that this immense total shows an increase compared with the previous year of 39,296,079. The letter-writing habit of New Zealanders is particularly well developed, and it results in the Post Office handling a brisk business in postal articles equalling 311.9 for every unit in the population. or practically a letter or other article posted by or delivered to every man, woman, and child in the Dominion for every day in the year. The total numbers of letters and letter-cards posted and delivered in the Dominion during 1934 and 1935 were as follow, the delivered including those received from overseas; — 1935 255.645.454 1934 275,063,943

Increase 1935 13.551.541 The Dominion is divided into IS postal districts, and separate statistiese are kept for these and for New Zealand’s island dependencies, Rarotonga and Western Samoa. The activity in letter-writing and receipt in each of these districts can be gauged from the following figures of letters and letter-cards posted and delivered last year: Auckland 55.094.023 Blenheim 2,838,133 Christchurch ..... 36.939.55 G Dunedin 23,023,350 Gisborne 6,333,959 Greymouth 4,14 G. S4l Hamilton 19,802,778 Invercargill ...., 13,360,269 Napier 13.G62.552 Nelson 5,800,840 New Plymouth .... 10,124,912 Oamaru 3,019,013 Palmerston North 13,053,123 Thames 7,133,893 Timaru 7,202,950 Wanganui 10,393,104 Wellington 51,652,894 Westport 1.814.228 Rarotonga. 105.228 .Western Samoa .. 140,538

The increase of over 13J millions in the letters and letter-cards handled last year compares favourably with the previous year’s advance, which was 13 'millions. Further comparisons would produce even larger contrasts, due probably to the stimulating effect of the reintroduction in June, 1932, of penny postage, whih was the Department’s early contribution to lowered costs of business during the economic depression.

One of the most striking developments in postal business last year was in connection with the carriage of printed and commercial papers, books, etc., the number of these packages increasing by 23,745,647 to a total of just over 191 millions. The Department also put through the mails 34J million newspapers, an increase in the year of just over one million, and over 32 million parcels, an increase of 78,000, which, since the end of the year, has already been greatly exceeded owing to the revised scale of charges. Last year’s* cash value of the postal side of the Department’s business was £1,240,-