p.—l

XIII

Missing Letters. 809 inquiries for letters and 694 for other articles alleged to have been posted and not delivered were made during 1899. In 381 of the inquiries for .letters and 408 for other articles—over onehalf the total number—the investigations by the department resulted in the missing articles being traced or accounted for. These may be summarised as follows : — Number of " Traced ' Gases. Letters. Other Articles. Pound to have been 37 39 ... Missent, misdelivered, or otherwise delayed through fault of Post Office. 39 42 ... Delayed in delivery through fault of addressees. 29 32 ... Not posted. 26 28 ... Posted later than advised ; forwarded by slower routes than letters of advice, &c. 56 60 ... Defectively or wrongly addressed. 59 63 ... Mislaid or lost after delivery. 27 29 ... Returned through Dead-letter Office as unclaimed, &c. 108 115 ... Delivered. Eeason for inquiry not given, but probably in most cases omission by addressees to acknowledge receipt. 381 408

Registered Letters. The number of registered articles dealt with in 1899, compared with the numbers in 1890, 1897, and 1898, is shown below:—

Inland Mails. The general reletting of tenders for the triennium 1900-2 took place at the end of 1899. The prosperous state of trade and the high price of produce at the time gave reason to suppose that a considerable increase in the cost would be shown. The accepted tenders for the services

Letters Letter " Pos *- Packets News - Letters Letter - Post - Packets News " uetteis. cardS] cardg .rackets. papergi uetters. cards carda rackets. papers# Inland. Returned, delivered, &.C., through Deadletter Office Returned by Chief Postmasters direct .. Destroyed in accordance with law 55,517 30,262 2,706 1,182 "58 2,362 3,011 115 58,777 47,232 704 j 518 I 1 Ja0,956 60,332 20,334 3,682 1,946 119 2,594 2,581 158 48,704 40,686 1,211 770 3M30 Intercolonial. Originally addressed to other colonies :— Returned to writers Destroyed in accordance with law ,. Returned to other colonies as unclaimed 4,821 233 3,800 32 3 20 i,ooi: 56; 3,573] 4,041 242 4,298 83 11 25 1,228 75 4,998 9 12 International. Originally addressed to other countries :— Returned to writers Destroyed in accordance with law Returned to other countries as unclaimed 5,137 251 5,020 40 2 40 576 33 19,161 5,206 316 5,331 108 8 31 677 32 17,050 10 9 Totals 107,747! 1,259 5,625 131,113 31,474 103,782] 2,086] 5,599] 114,661 31,900

1890. 1897. 1898. 1899. Postal Districts. Prom T> B „i R . Places -tteglbk „ % teredin beyond the Colony, Colon yTotals. Prom Places beyond the Colony. Registered in the Colony. Totals. From Places beyond the Colony. Registered in the Colony. Totals. From Places beyond the Colony. Registered in the Colony. Totals. Auckland rhames Slew Plymouth .. jlisborne Napier .. Vanganui Wellington 31enheim STelson .. .. iVestport 3-reymouth Jokitika jhristchureh Cimaru .. )amaru Dunedin 7,119 130 341 118 999 211 6,129 92 322 112 102 95 3,659 312 278 4,615 1,740 34,398 4,781 3,372 2,120 10,911 6,060 30,369 3,193 3,430 3,254 8,879 2,579 20,404 3,551 2,505 19,696 9,819 41,517 4,911 3,713 2,238 11,910 6,271 36,498 3,285 3,752 3,366 8,981 2,674 24,063 3,863 2,783 24,311 11,559 12,517 206 830 231 1,379 1,484 11,594 66 610 196 425 74 4,687 232 109 7,392 3,220 62,903 18,038 14,246 4,850 19,545 17,801 54,235 4,318 10,279 5,472 6,496 3,444 53,212 5,478 4,197 37,322 17,866 75,420 18,244 15,076 5,081 20,924 19,285 65,829 4,384 10,889 5,668 6,921 3,518 57,899 5,710 4,306 44,714 21,086 13,891 289 1,031 232 948 1,584 13,107 68 709 179 540 60 5,371 507 170 6,352 3,357 94,138 16,654 15,003 5,034 18,853 18,569 69,297 4,397 10,270 7,100 7,360 3,586 54,528 6,737 5,040 33,522 19,740 108,029 16,943 16,034 5,266 19,801 20,153 82,404 4,465 10,979 7,279 7,900 3,646 59,899 7,244 5,210 39,874 23,097 17,209 295 1,246 327 1,115 1,850 14,340 97 656 337 583 84 5,143 1,068 163 6,427 3,431 105,710 18,659 15,560 3,868 24,024 22,929 78,947 5,471 12,002 7,713 8,497 4,363 48,169 8,130 7,244 39,544 23,936 122,919 18,954 16,806 4,195 25,139 24,779 93,287 5,568 12,658 8,050 9,080 4,447 53,312 9,198 7,407 45,971 27,367 invercargill Totals 26,374 169,321 195,695] 45,252 339,702 384,954 48,395 389,828 438,223 54,371 434,766 489,137