POSTAL RATES AND REVENUE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23213, 6 December 1938, Page 10

POSTAL RATES AND REVENUE

When discussing the possibility of having ordinary mails in New Zealand carried by air, the PostmasterGeneral said in Christchurch last week that with the question was bound up the one of postal rates. This having apparently been interpreted as a hint that ordinary postal rates might be increased, Mr. Jones now gives an assurance that no such thing has been considered by the Government. So long as business proceeds in the way it did last year, there should be no need to think of adding anything to the postal rates. According to the last accounts available the department was doing very well. In the year 1937-38 the t&tal revenue, apart from the business of the Post Office Savings Bank, amounted to £4,302,244, and expenditure, including the payment of the whole assessed interest on capital liability, £590,000, totalled £4,185,762. Out of the balance, £255,282 was paid to the Consolidated Fund, representing profit on the year's working, leaving £42,405 to be carried forward. Of the revenue of £4,302,244, £1,274,834 came from postages, this item being exceeded only by telephone-exchange receipts, £1,458,000. The revenue from postal business showed an increase of £182,855 over that of the previous year, compared with increases of £162,644 in 1936-37 and £94,889 in 1935-36. No doubt the "all-up" air mail to Empire countries has had an influence on post office business, but the full facts must be awaited until the complete accounts for this year are available. Meantime there is no evidence, such as was visible in the case of the railways, of any need for an increase in rates. Extension of the inland air mail services may make a difference, but it should not be forgotten that the minimum inland air rate is twopence now, compared with a minimum of three-halfpence between New Zealand and Great Britain.