POSTAL AND TELEGRAPH DEPARTMENT.

Timaru Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 2762, 31 July 1883, Page 3

PO S TAL AND TELEGRAPH DEPARTMENT.

The i-epoit on the IYb! -office and Teleurnpli Department deals with ilio year ended Ve member 31st, 1882. Xlie statement of revenue an.l expenditure, however, is for the financial year ended March 3 lit, 1883. Thorc has been a largo and general incroaso in the business of tlio Department, the last year haying beon more than usually prosperous. Thonum ber of letters dealt with wa« 30,525,679— an inorra'o of nearly 5,000,000, or 19 44 per cent. The number of telegram! of all codes transmilt d was 1,570,189— an inoro«Beof 131,417 messugei, or 9.13 p-r cent. The revenue • hows an increase of £30,105 10i 2d,or 12.79 per cent over the previous year's receipt'. I'lie expenditure for the year increisod by £21,255 19j Id — an abnormnlly large increase The statement of tbo revenue is as follows: — Stamps for postage, £130,000 ; money-order commission, £8369 5s 8d ; money-order commission received from foreign offices, £29s lo« 2d j private box nod bag fetg, £3029 Is 2d j postage from foreign '.dices, £24.305 17s 2d ; miscellaneous receipts (postal), £sooß 19j 9J ; ordinary and Press telegrams, £34,876 4s 6d j telephone, £5019 9s ; miscellaneous receipts (telegraph), £2745 10* 2d ;— a tolal of £264.634 18s 2d. Too expenditure wai : —Salaries, £115,266 Oi 4J j conveyance of mails hy aea, £61,077 6s 7d ; convey anco of inlind mails, £26,049 8s 7d ; money order commission credited to foreign oOlcpp £1299s 13s ; maintenance and repairs ol telegraph linos and miscellaneous, £44,642 14i 6ii j cablo subiidiep, £5312 7s 6d : — total £254 547 10* 3d. Balauoe of revenue over ox pendituro, £101,087 7s lid. The rovenue from stamps is bul an estimate. During the year £18,65 1 for telegraph extension and £0938 for new buildings was expended nut ol loan. The sum of £6090 for buildings, alterations, and repairs was spent out of vote on 111 public buildings — io all £34,672. The carriage of mails by railway ii not debited to the Department. This service is valued at £15,000 per annum. No credit is taken for official correspondence and telegrams, amounting to £84,361 8> 41. Though it is deiirablo thai the actual receipts and expenditure of the Dopartment should be papablo of being stated precisely and in a concise form, this caunot be accomplished under the present system. The post-cards delivered were 418,477, and posted 610,618 — showing a total incro&se of 86,555 | book-packets and pattern parcels delivered, 1,087,584,|p0ited I,3oß,o7l— showing an increase of orer 28 por cent over the previous year ; newjpapere delivered, 7,357,473, posted 6,955,626 -an increase of nearly 9 per cent. Tho number of leltera posted by oaeli person is estimated at 30. The sum of £102,345 8s 8d was collected at postoffiue?, in 16,478 payments, on account of the pro party tax. Forty-two additional wall or pdlar receivers woro erected during the yonr, and 10 closed, the tatal number of such now being 183. Forty-eight new post-ofllcej wtro opened, nine reopened, and i!5 close I during the year, tho number of post-offices being uow 900. Eighteen additional money order and savings banks oflicci were eitablijded. The inland Bervice was performed nt. n cosl of e lightly exceeding 2d per mile. Tho net coit of tho San Francisco and Brindisi srrvicoi wero £1176 5i 9 J and £4715 3» 9J reipe.tivoly. Unclaimed letters show an inerosse of 5 per c»-nt. In the letter! opened in the Dead Ljtlrr Offlse were gotd, muney, and cheques to tho amount of £6892 17s. In addition there were gold watclie?, ringo, nuggets, and brooches. The registered letters numberod lll,?74 On an average the Ban Krancisco service to Dunrdin was five days shorter thin the Brindisi service. In the savings bank" there wero 21.204 new accounig opened, and 14,505 closed, the number of accounts now being 57 517. Thern wero 129,952 deposit made, for £1,325,852 2» 1 1 d ; t ht re woro 69,308 withdrawals, for £1,142,599 j and the total amount at credit at the end of 1882 was £1 ,470,950 13s 6d— an increase of £238,162 16« 9d. ihorxcefs of deposits over withdrawals for the year was £tOO,OOO lo."« th»n the previous ye»r. The average cost of each transaction was slightly under sd. The number of shilling accounts opened was 852; the previous year there wore 1656 of such accounts opened. The money orders numberod 148,162 for nearly Lalf a million. The money orders issued for Europe and Australia ihow a balaaco of £104,655 against tho colony. The telegraph was used for the transmission of 15,133 orders, for £-<°0,263. The telegraph eaih revenue for the calendar year was £89,876 10j 2d, and the expenditure £96,005 15s 4d— or n loss of £6129 17»2i. The average number of telegrams sent to every 100 letters for tho whole colony was 13 — an increase over the previous yeir. in the face of an unusually large increase of letters. The average ooit for maintenance of telegraph lines per milo was £5 17s sd. Nine hundred and fifty-one telephones woro imported, of which 767 are now in use.