F.—l

VIII

The colony's outward international and intercolonial cable business, not including Press, for the years 1898 and 1899 was as follows : — Messages. Value. International, — Number. £ s. d. 1898 . ... 9,439 ... 32,527 3 4 1899 ',]', 10,335 ... 36,881 13 9 Increase ... 896 Increase ... 4,354 10 5 or 9-49 per cent. or 1339 per cent. Messages. Value. Intercolonial,— Number. £ b. d. 1898 ... ... 45,703 ... 11,033 19 0 1899 ::: 49,722 ... n,690 is n Increase ... 4,019 Increase ... 656 19 11 or 8-79 per cent. or 5-95 per Cent. The total increase in 1899 was therefore 4,915 messages, and £5,011 10s. 4d. in value. The forwarded and received cable Press business for the past nine years ended 31st December, 1899, has been :— .

Note.—The intercolonial cable Press rate was reduced from 3d. to Id. per word on tbe Ist April, 1893. POST OFFICE. Articles posted and delivered. The number of articles posted in the colony, and received from places outside the colony during 1899, as compared with the number in 1898, was as under :— T, P ht-,ers— 1899- 1898 - Increase. Posted in the colony 3 I'M? Received from places outside the colony .. 2,348,/ii9 a.^u.aai 37,380,671 34,737,316 2,643,355 Let p r os°t a edin"the colony .. .. .•• 1,103,700 917,631 186,069 the colony 1,606,888 1,399,450 Received from places outside the colony .. 37,bb8 au,on 1,643,051 1,479,964 163,087 Books and pattern-packets— Posted in the colony 1 owl™ Received from places outside the colony .. 1,448,28b t,j.u,-Jtv 17,659,858 16,618,101 1,041,757 NeW p P ord S nT the colony U.UT.gJ 10,872,459 Received from places outside the colony .. 4,269,731 4,2^d,u^a 15,717,388 15,095,487 621,901 Par °Pos7ed in the colony 193,143 177,559 Received from places outside the colony .. Ai,uvi 223,350 204,603 18,747 The letters increased 7-61; letter-cards, 20-28 ; post-cards, 11-02 ; books and pattern-packets, 6-27; newspapers, 4-12; and parcels, 9-16 per cent. ~„,..„ , .„ Qfl , , -, The increase in 1898 was: Letters, 7-64; letter-cards, 21-19; post-cards, 10-30; books and pattern-packets, 13-61; newspapers, 5-85 ; parcels 3-57 per cent. The average number of letters posted per head of population was estimated to be 46-31, or 47-77 including letter-cards. The averages in 1898 were 44-10 and 45-34 respectively

Forwarded. Received. Number of Number of Year. Value. Value. Messages. Words. Messages. Words. 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 837 791 796 994 1,168 1,069 1,294 1,154 1,570 45,285 44,263 57,390 103,366 68,682 92,946 128,839 133,342 182,066 £ s. 932 15 898 3 504 9 899 4 433 13 531 4 945 4 907 7 1,800 10 d. 8 9 9 9 0 9 8 0 4 ' 2,828 2,884 2,883 3,033 3,926 2,946 3,665 3,599 3,822 198,935 197,477 202,170 203,326 314,136 285,369 323,617 282,882 298,218 £ s. d. 2,739 6 0 2,796 9 4 1,540 17 10 1,179 13 7 1,782 13 5 1,576 1 3 1,752 7 5 1,599 7 0 1,690 12 4