D—No. 2

Arrangements to facilitate despatch.

Pre-payment by stamps, -

Franking letters on pub lie service.

Manufacture of labels.

their vessels so as to be prepared for further extentions. It is gratifying, nevertheless, to observe that the Colony has now passed the period of being dependent on one source only for the supply of its steam communication. Ic will not be inopportune to remark in this place that the regularity of the' steam postal service of New Zealand is made to depend in a great measure upon the punctuality of the Peninsular and Oriental Company's vessels in performing the service from Southampton to Melbourne and Sydney. For several months after the new contract with that Company was entered into by the Imperial Government the utmost regularity of arrival was maintained by the employment of a class of vessels fully competent to perform the service which had been undertaken. But lately it is noticeable that some vessels of smaller size and inferior power have been substituted for those first used upon the line from Point de Galle to Sydney; and the consequence has been, in almost every case of such substitution, the detention of the mails beyond the appointed day of arrival. Should this practice be continued it will be almost impossible to introduce a system of regularity into the sea-borne mail service of this Colony. PRE-PAYMENT OP POSTAGE. s The great increase in the business of the Post Office has necessitated constant additions to the strength of the staff of officers, and consequently to the cost of management. Further, the extension of postal communications, adding materially to the number of mails received and despatched at the principal post offices, has been found to cause severe pressure upon those offices at certain times. Accuracy and quickness in the sorting, delivery, and despatch of mails are the two chief attributes of any well ordered office, and to attain these at certain times without adding more to the strength of the office th in is constantly required is a difficult problem. Tbe contemplated introduction of the money order system has added to the urgency of these considerations. Attention has therefore been directed to the removal of all impediments to the transaction of the special duties of tbe department; and with this view the postal system has in some respects been modified. The most important change introduced affecting the public has been to require the prepayment of letters in the case of inland correspondence, where previously prepayment was optional; and the payment of all postage by labels affixed to the letter or . packet. These changes have been in force since the first of April, 1862 ; and so far as the circumstances have been reported, the result is successful. The impediments to rapidity and accuracy of work thus avoided comprise the necessity of accounting for money, except under the single head of labels sold; the extra sorting and recording of correspondence while making up a mail; and the complicated and voluminous accounts, consequent on the transmission of paid and unpaid as well as stamped letters. The system of franking letters on the service of the General Government has also removed an inconvenience which has been much felt by some offices while the former practice prevailed of treating such letters as paid, and charging the amount as expenditure on one side and revenue on the other. The revenue from the Post Office will no doubt appear to be diminished on this account, but it will not in reality be affected by the change. Every provision has been made to secure a sufficient supply of postage labels throughout the country to meet the new demand. The labels are now manufactured within this office, the arrangements contemplated last year with that object having been carried into effect from February last. The number produced is at present at the rate of nearly two million labels per annum of all values, and about twice that number may be manufactured without increase of the staff. Arrangements are now being made for issuing a new threepenny label, which will be of use in payment of postage on single letters and newspapers addressed to the United Kingdom via Marseilles. And for the convenience of the public in separating the labels a machine for perforating the edges has been ordered. MONEY ORDERS. ,. In accordance with an agreement entered into with the Imperial Post Office it is purposed to d establish tbe money order system between this Colony and the United Kingdom commencing with the 15th of next July. It is calculated that the system will confer an appreciable benefit on a large class of the population of the Colony and will be a source of revenue rather than of expense to the public. . k. So soon as the system just initiated with the United Kingdom shall have been a short time in operation it is proposed to establish it also within the Colony ; and afterwards, should it prove to work without inconvenience or loss, to extend it to such of the neighbouring Colonies as may concur in itsestablishment. I have the honor to be, Sir, Your Excellency's obedient Servant, CROSBIE WARD,

Commencement of systern wiih the Uuited Kingdom.

1 inland and inter-CQlo-nially. t 1 i

8

THIRD REPORT ON