POST AND TELEGRAPH DEPARTMENT.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXV, Issue 5007, 3 July 1903, Page 6

POST AND TELEGRAPH DEPARTMENT.

A STEADILY-PROSPEROUS BUSINESS. THE ANNUAL REPORT. Tho report of the Post and Telegraph Department for the year which ended March 31st. was submitted to Parliament yesterday. The business, the report states, was highly satisfactory, tho receipts exceeding those of any previous year. Xlio gross revenue, which showed a drop in tho previous year on account of tho penny post, was £3(1,525 in excess of that for 1901, whilst the balance of revenue over expeudiuro reached £37,234. Despite' tho cheap postage, tho telegraph revenue has continued to increase abnormally, hut tho largo addition required to the staff to handlo tho telegraph business is responsible for tho fact that there is still a balance of expenditure over the telegraph receipts, and this ha* to be made good out of postal revenue. The different character of the postal and telegraph business may bo gauged by tho fact that £21,507 more postal revenue was collected than in the preceding year, for an increase in salaries of £67,92, while for an, increased telegraph revenue of £15,018 tho telegraph salaries rose by £ll,93o—that is to say, the additional postal business cost 31.58 per cent, for salaries, while tho additional telegrapib business cost 79.44 per cent. Moreover had tho same volume of postal business been dono at the postage rates subsisting two years ago, nearly double tho revenue would have been derived at tho eanio cost. On the other hand, tho telegraph business was dealt with under the same tariff as had been in operation during tho six preceding years. The total telegraph salaries show an increase of £22,680, but the largo difference is accounted for by- the inclusion for tho first time under tho headl of “salaries” of'the payments made to country telephonists by way of fees, and formerly charged to “ miscellaneous.” " ‘ It is not alone in tho'handling of mail-matter and the transmission of telegrams that the business continues to grow. Tho year, the report states, lias been also a record ono for savings banks, and nearly all other classes of business transacted, except in moneyorders issued and newspapers handled. In newspapers the figures fell 2.41 per cent, as compared with those for the previous year—a result to bo attributed mainly, if not entirely, to the fact that a happier, though less stirring, period followed tho late war. The fall in money-orders issued is duo to tho attempt to suppress the Tasmanian racing lotteries. Tho receipts on tho postal side of tho department during the year amounted to £302,604 .Os Old, and the telegraph revenue to £222.494116s .',Cd, the total receipts, therefore, . being £525,093 17s 3(d. The expenditure amounted to £487,814 10s; mad,© up as follows Postal, £259,447 9s fid : telegraph, £228,367 0s 7d. The remarkable increase in the Post Office Savings Bank business is tho subject of special comment in the report, ft is pointed out that the number of separate deposit accounts is in tho ratio of one in every 3J of the population (including Maoris;,- so that not only must almost every adult possess a banking account, bub numbers of young people and children, also have accounts. Nor is this a mere matter of a few shillings saved, since .the average amount at tho credit of -feaj3ll,-I,'ao-count has reached the very nvptct.able sum of £3O 5s 3d, or a total of £6,883,787, which is equal to £8 10s 5d for each man, woman and child in the colony. While, during the past- ten years, the number of offices lias been increased from 318 to 481, or more than 01 per cent., tho number of deposits has increased from 186,945 to 411,215 — that is to say, by 120 per cent.—and tho amount deposited from £1,878,270 to £5,069,619, or 170 per cent. There baa also been a steady increase in the total and individual savings. During the decennial period, the amount at the credit of depositors increased from £2,863,670 to £6,883,787, or at. tho rate of over 140 per cent. It is .only (.natural, observes the report, that'with an increase of 102 per cent, in tho number of depositors, their credit balances should be largely augmented • but when it is remembered that the increase in the savings far' outstripped the ratio of increase in the number of depositors, it will bo seen that not onl” are there more than double the number of depositors, but that each depositor is richer than in 1892. Tho average increased 19 per cent., or from £25 9s to £3O os 3d. While the amount at the credit of the depositors increased 140 per cent., tho amoilnt allowed by way of interest exceeded that of 1892 by only some 55 per cent.—-a fact duo to the reduction in the rates of interest between June, 1893, and November, 1897, though it proves that the institution fulfils its function as a savings bank independently of the 1 rate” of interest. It is noteworthy that* ’ ‘the number of withdrawals has increased in a greater ratio than the number of deposits—a circumstance attributed to tho tendency to deposit amounts in excess of actual • savings, and to draw thereon as occasion requires. Tho number of letters posted during tho year was 53,278,875, an increase of 4,908,059 as compared with the preceding year, and equal to 66.78 letters per head of the' population. The letters received from places outside the colony numbered 3,410,331. The number of forwarded telegrams of all codes was 4,559,304, an increase of 391,323. Money orders numbering 367,207 for the value of £1,277,059 were • issued, and 286,642 orders;.; representing £1,117,137, paid. Tho telephone subscriptions amounted to £62.151. When the value of the free official correspondence and Government telegrams is added, the credit balance on the year’s transactions amounts to £135,670. Tho report states that tho Pacino cable is steadily growing, and since the completion of tho cable, tho colouj-’s telegraph business by both routes has increased by about 50 per cent. The average number of messages transmitted to and from New Zealand prior to the opening of the Pacific cable was about 425 per day. The present average is nearly COO a day by both routes.