EXPANDING BUSINESS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22710, 24 October 1935, Page 7

EXPANDING BUSINESS

FIGURES FROM POSTAL REPORT REFLECTION OF IMPROVED CONDITIONS (Special to Daily Times) WELLINGTON, October 23. Many evidences of expanding business following the general revival in trade throughout the Dominion are contained in the annual report of the Post and Telegraph Department presented to Parliament by the Postmaster-general (Mr Adam Hamilton). The revenue collected during the year exceeded that for tho previous year by £142,504. The sum received was £3,342,978, compared with £3,200,414 for 1933-34. Increases in revenue in respect of all phases of the department's activities indicate clearly the improved financial position of the Dominion. Payments for the year in respect of working expenses (including interest on capital liability amounting to £546,000, and a sum of £81,864 provided out of the Depreciation Fund) totalled £2,844,554. The excess of receipts over payments was £498,424. Almost record deposits have been reached in the Post Office Savings Bank, the Postmaster-general pointing out that the improvement in the Savings Bank position which commenced early in 1933 continued during the year. Excesses of deposits over withdrawals amounted to £3,232,975 compared with £1,610,681 for the year ended March 31, 1934. The total amount at the credit of depositors on March 31, 1935, was £49,423,714, which is less than £13,000 short of the total for 1929-30, in which year the amount standing to the credit of depositors was the highest on record. The amount accumulated in the Post Office Savings Bank at March 31, 1935, represented an average of £30.33 per capita for the Dominion. Since the end of the financial year the position has still further improved, and the total amount at the credit of depositors now exceeds £50,000,000. The business of the commercial branch of the department increased during the year by 33.2 per cent, and all the important phases of the department's business also showed expansion, letters having increased by 4.71 per cent., postcards 3.8 per cent., parcels 4.1 per cent., all other articles 5.34 per cent., representing the handling of nearly 250,000,000 packages. Telephone subscribers now total 126,383, which is within 4.8 per cent, of the highest point on record. There was an appreciable increase of money-order business during the year, and greater use was also made of the postal-note service, while the total sales of post office investment certificates amounted to £227,958. The volume of work performed on behalf of other Government departments continues to expand, the total sum handled in this respect' during the year having reached approximately £34,000,000, an increase of about £3,000,000 on the previous year's total.