THE POST AND TELEGRAPH DEPARTMENT.

Otago Witness, Issue 2220, 17 September 1896, Page 15

THE POST AND TELEGRAPH DEPARTMENT.

(Fjm>m Qua Own. OovunsavommsT.)

Wellington, September 11.

The Post and Telegraph department report w*s laid on the table of the House to-day. There was a considerable expansion of business iti all t'u3 branches of the department dnring the year. The telegraphic traffic was unusually heavy, owing to fehe nvning " boom" in Auckland. The revenue for the ye»r ended 3lst March last from all sources was £365,727, and the expenditure £332,325, so that there was a balance of revenue over expenditure of £33,402. The principal revenue item-Tare-: — Stamps uaed for postage (estimated),. £21 500 ; ordinary and press telegrams, £9289 ; telephone exchanges, £25 933 ; money order and postal note commis'ion 'collected in the colony, £14.158 Too largflat expenditure was for salaries, £196,072.' Mainteu&noe and repairs of telegraph lines and miscellaneous items cosh £48.027 ; conveyance of mails by sea, £36 670; inland mail, £33,605; conveyance of mails by railway, £11,9,21 ;. cable subsidies, £4774. There was »n all-round increase of revenuj amountiug to £9277, while the expeuditaire was £32,354 in «xoe«s of that for the pievious year. This increase is explained by the f»nt that tome items of expenditure unpaid last year arc in this yeir/u ftccounb, and that the payments wore further increased by the diabursi nwnt of: £11.70+ to the Railway department for the carriage of mailf. The remainder of tbe iocre»ned expenditure ia on Hccount of the expansion of business. There w.'re nearly 27 million letters pasted in tbe colony, an increase of over a million for the year. Over two million telegrams were rent, an inorewo of 90,411. There were 63 post offices established, the number op*n at the close of the year being 1404. There. wer« 184 miles of line «nd 883 miles of wire erected during the year. Money orders for £818,604 were issued and postal notes for £123,368 *-ci-« sold, The amount <Jepo6itod io tfee Potit Offioe Saving B^nb wai £2,794,506, and the sum withdrawn £2,369,333, the total depotits at the close of the sear amounted to £3,895,543, an increase of £554 664 as compared with tho preceding year. There are 800 men and 118 women in th« serviced

Mr Ward was ,Poatma*ter-general . from 24th January 1891 till l§tu Juno lait. The report states that many improvements fn the eer /ice and liberal . oono38«ion» to the public* were made during his term of offioe. Among the latter may be mentioned the reduction of international aud intercolonial telegraph cable rates, the redaction of telegraph exchange rates, the introduction of £5 postal nofau and letter cards, libei-*l amendments in the commercial and printed paper post, qnd other reductions in the postage rates, and tb*» int.oducbion of sixpenny telegrams.