F.—l

X

The following table gives the number of parcels exchanged with the United Kingdom and foreign countries via London and the Australian Colonies during the years 1893 and 1894: —

The declared value of the parcels received from places outside the colony was £27,601 14s. Id. The Customs duty collected amounted to £5,340 7s. 4d. In 1893 the declared value was £27,941 55., and the duty £5,279 2s. Id. The declared value of parcels despatched to places beyond the colony was £7,037 4s. Id., as against £4,860 4s. Bd. in 1893.

Official Correspondence. The estimated value of official or free correspondence for the year is given in the statement below: —

The estimated value for 1893 was £63,838 17s. 9d.

Dead Letters. The number of unclaimed letters received and disposed of during the under-mentioned years is shown in the following table: —

The unclaimed letters dealt with show an increase of 0-93 per cent, compared with the number disposed of the previous year. The proportion of dead or unclaimed letters to the total number of letters posted in the colony was 0 - 36 per cent. The number of missing-letter inquiries to the total number of letters posted was in the proportion of 1 to 20,003.

Number of Parcels. Country. Received. Despi ;ched. United Kingdom and foreign offices via London Victoria New South Wales Queensland South Australia Tasmania Western Australia 1893. 13,586 2,722 575 163 219 184 29 11 2 9 23 20 1894. 13,147 2,560 2,225 141 215 144 52 21 1893. 2,962 1,209 399 173 142 274 75 11 7 5 6 6 1894. 3,325 1,246 1,075 205 170 279 95 72 12 45 19 4 Samoa Tonga Barotonga Ceylon Straits Settlements 15 25 22 Totals 5,269 6,547 17,543 18,567

Postal Districts. Letters. Books. Value. Postal Districts. Letters. Books. Value. Auckland Phames Sfew Plymouth lisborne Napier Wanganui Wellington kelson tVestport jreymouth lb. oz. 10,043 11J 2,069 10 3,360 12 1,704 0 6,915 12 7,023 0 121,046 11 1,059 2 2,140 0 1,405 9 lb. oz. 10,906 7J 2,611 14 16,200 0 2,725 0 ! 7 112 0 9,050 0 219,340 0 9,250 0 2,450 0 5,269 4 i £ s. d. 2,912 16 0 607 2 3 1 233 18 0 511 3 5 1 993 3 4 2,064 16 2 38,256 15 0 475 8 2 521 14 2 484 11 10 Hokitika Blenheim Christchuroh Timaru Oamaru Dunedin Invercargill lb. oz. 1,600 4 2,301 10 10,434 2 2,527 6J 1,595 12 12,551 0 3,670 2 lb. oz. 510 0 4,220 0 19,623 8 1,034 9 1,650 0 7,491 0 2 185 8 £ s. d. 437 7 2 704 5 0 3,191 5 1 695 16 8 454 18 2 3,504 11 2 1,024 18 7 Totals 191,448 8 321,629 2| 59,074 10 2

Manner of Disposal. 1884. 1885. 1 J_ 3886. 1887. 1888. 1889. 1890. 1892. 1893. 1894. Ipened and returned to the writers Returned unopened to other countries Reissued )estroyed Returned unopened by Chief Postmasters 68,942 9,134 107 3,986 66,592 8,115 185 2,872 66,729 8,359 251 6,600 62,847 7,287 96 5,974 55 118 6,892 88 5,246 62,654 6,220 92 4,340 60,540 7 779 141 2,660 63,483 7,751 128 2,092 62,209 8,255 160 2,941 61,745 8,941 130 4,725 17,593 19,187 21 144 20,185 19,963 21,164 21,931 19,909 23,115 22,042 Totals 99,762 96,951 103,083 96,389 87,307 94,470 93,051 97,583 93,363 96,680