F.—l.

The balance of revenue over expenditure was £40,364 Is. 3d., compared -with £51,715 0s. 2d. for the former year. The combined Post Office and Telegraph revenue was equal to 9s. ll-12d. per head of the population, and the expenditure 8s. 8-03d. The estimated value of the official correspondence was £62,996 Is. lid., and that of Government telegrams £24,342 7s. —a total of £87,338 8s. lid. for services performed for departments of the public service without payment. This sum, added to the revenue, gives £406,096 19s. 3d. as the value of the Post Office and Telegraph work for the yea/, which, on deducting the expenditure, leaves a balance of £127,702 10s. 2d. in favour of the department. The estimated value of the official correspondence and Government telegrams was equal to 27'39 per cent, of the combined revenue. 25,530,804 letters were posted, and 25,079,938 delivered—an increase of 1,785,342 and 1,212,536 respectively. 143,513 inland parcels were posted, compared with 157,465 in 1891, a decrease of 13,952, due to numbers of the smaller-sized parcels having been sent by packet post, the rate for which was reduced from 8d. to 4d. per pound. 1,904,143 telegrams of all codes were forwarded—a decrease of 64,121, or 3-26 per cent. The system adopted of estimating the number of telegrams from periodical countings has been abandoned, and returns kept of the actual messages forwarded. 199,438 money-orders for £694,847 4s. 5d. were issued ; and 160,423 orders for £612,312 5s. 10d. were paid. 240,019 postal-notes, representing a sum of £86,962 2s. 7d., were sold, being an increase of 25,685 in number and £8,153 12s. 5d. in amount. 39 post-offices were established, 5 reopened, and 12 closed. The total number of post and telegraph or telephone offices open at the end of 1892 was 1,263. The number of telephone exchange connections including bureau offices on the 31st March last was 3,811, and the subscriptions received for the year amounted to £19,155 11s. 5d., against £18,571 7s. 8d. in 1891. Telephone exchanges were established at Palmerston North and Thames, and a sub-exchange at Winton. The number of central telephone exchanges now open is 14, and also 8 sub-exchanges. The inland mail-services in operation numbered 683, costing the department £25,341 18s. 2d. 130 miles of telegraph line were erected. At the close of the year the total mileage was : 5,479 miles of line, and 13,459 miles of wire. The net expenditure out of loan on telegraph extension was £29,245 9s. 2d.; £1,073 4s. out of • Consolidated Fund was also expended. The deposits in the Post-office Savings Bank during the calendar year amounted to £1,878,270 6s. 4d., and the withdrawals to £1,821,348 18s. Id. The total amount at the credit of depositors on the 31st December, 1892, was £2,863,670 12s. 10d. The following table and return give the number of offices and officers of all classes on the 31st December last: —

II

Postal Districts. i "© ffl a So d^ fta> ffl p ■£• s 8.S 3,d o 3, 7: ;h o hi; ft S 0 -£ £ © i O—■ -£ ffl 9Ti gri 01) 'on jleiph ices. a ianent Offices. © © rd d 3 g « ft o Tl S3 ffl O .8-3 ,Q ft d «s o oc O 3 5 -d ti ft d « a oEH !ombined Railway ft it ffl o 0 ® 3 03 -gH ft O <D a o ft Sis it C © sa a O t3 4>> co 2 O-rH ft Country Offices. a o o d 0 IS .—■ ft ffl © H M . N rd o S^ CD q tfl'g ft ai O ft d d w £ CO o ©£ i§ ? 3 gl CO 03 a O M H ffl o ft <D r 5 H M a d Q *H 3 ffl V a o EH Olei and P Cads rks 'ostal sts.* Oper (inch Cadi ■ators uding ets).t d Q+3 OCfl gd d d d ffl g d o o to ffl S 3 S-a oO ft Lei can tter:iers. a to .a © S o S.9 sa n a O ra s 2 O -^ ft Telei Messc graph sngers. E ffl o bo H a H O 8 DQ cy it C to to "" o © ShS O w -x o Ph a ■9 +3 a o © 3 o o a a o © a o o o a Co? a.2 3' a o EH a o EH a P o Eh a 5 o Auckland Thames Gisborne Napier New Plymouth Wanganui Wellington .. Blenheim Nelson Westport Greymoutli .. Hokitika Christchurch.. Timaru Oamaru Dunedin Invercargill .. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 25 7 1 8 3 7 11 6 6 5 4 2 11 4 1 17 7 11 4 2 5 4 3 5 3 2 3 1 1 1 162 22 9 29 16 27 61 22 19 11 24 22 104 27 8 59 76 78 10 12 17 8 9 27 5 15 12 4 10 17 2 9 56 19 7 1 2 1 5 1 5 1 1 1 1 .. I 1 2 1 1 20 4 1 ■ 2 13 5 2 58 5 19 2 7 65 2 1 1 1 1 51 4 1 50 11 22 8 5 25 6 15 41 43 15 5 9 4 29 10 10 28 10 9 5 7' 1 7 20 2 4 46 7 1 18 5 14 21 7 10 5 4 2 46 15 9 36 20 17 2 1 4 2 3 14 2 3 1 2 1 17 2 2 17 3 6 1 '2 2 7 1 3 1 2 ! 4 1 14 3 3 6 2 4 29 2 5 3 3 2 16 3 3 15 4 16 3 4 3 7 12 2 ' 3 4 7 1 1 4 2 3 8 3 2 1 2 1 7 1 1 3 2 1 1 26 11 5 12 10 4 3 3 1 1 1 1 4 5 "l "6 "4 5 1 7 2 2 1 6 3 2 1 1 2 2 13 2 1 1 2 4 3 1 1 8 8 9 28 15 10 6 '4 1 12 4 Totals .. 5 5 125 93 26 6 2 698 310 41 21 105 279 I ! i 285 86 266 I I 93 Us 117 85 36 49 * Post-office c ielegraph operatii f Telegraph o( lerk ag, 8 icral s, b mdi tors. (leg) ;ele| cloi raph coun fraph desp -ks and cai iter ?atcl dets cler 1 cle: prin ks, rks icipi telephone md distribi Lily engagei exc uor I in change 1 :s. telegra] ;lerks, cadets in post-office, cadets not principally engag, sd in >li operating..