F.—l

earrings, 1 pair greenstone earrings, 2 gold-mounted greenstone charms, 1 gold-mounted greenstone pendant, 5 silver-mounted greenstone pendants, 1 greenstone pendant, 1 silver-mounted greenstone spoon, 1 silver butter-knife with greenstone handle, 1 Railway Servants' Society's pendant, 1 gold tooth-pick, 1 pair gold-rimmed eye-glasses, 1 gold bangle, 1 gold-mounted tusk, 1 small piece of gold, 1 set silver spoons, 1 silver serviette-ring, 1 silver match-box, 1 cut-glass salve-pot with silver lid, 1 red leather purse, 2 books foreign stamps, 4 sheets foreign stamps, 47 packets foreign stamps, 1 certificate of title and memo, of mortgage, 1 gum license, 1 steamer ticket (single, Melbourne to Wellington), 4 feathers for hat, and violin-strings were dealt with. The number of inland, intercolonial, and international articles received and disposed of during the years 1900 and 1901 was as under: —

Missing Letters. 1,090 inquiries for letters and 861 for other articles alleged to have been posted and not delivered were made during 1901. In 626 of the inquiries for letters and 533 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 " Cases. Letters. Other Articles. Pound to have been 62 53 ... Missent, misdelivered, or otherwise delayed through fault of Post Office. 20 17 ... Delayed in delivery through fault of addressees. 34 , 29 ... Not posted. 64 55 ... Posted later than advised ; forwarded by slower routes than letters of advice, &c. 114 96 ... Defectively or wrongly addressed. 61 51 ... Mislaid or lost after delivery. 37 32 ... Returned through Dead-letter Office as unclaimed, &c. 234 200 ... Delivered. Reason for inquiry not given, but probably in most cases omission by addressees to acknowledge receipt. 626 533 Registered Letters. The number of registered articles dealt with in 1901, compared with the numbers in 1890, 1899, and 1900, is shown below :—

XIII

1900. 1901. uetters. Letter- Post- p..i. at . j News- T _ tt ._. Letter- Post- p . t Newscards, cards. acke 's- ! papers . Letters. cards cards rackets. papers Inland. Returned, delivered, &c, through Deadletter Office Returned by Chief Postmasters direct .. Destroyed in accordance with law 62,751 i 2,085 1,704 59,258 798 88,115 1,726 1,360 34,215 1,951 1,704 59,258 798 88,115 1,726 1,360 34,215 1,951 36,660 3,987 3,622 38,514 .. 40,909 .. 3,614 46,456 .. 142 108 1,45338,394 4,746 118 86 9,13942,736 3,622 108 38,514 .. 1,453 38,394 40,909 4,746 "ii8 3,614 86 46,456 9,139 421736 Australian. Originally addressed to other States :— Returned to writers Destroyed in accordance with law .. Returned to other States as unclaimed 4,249 270 4,025 91 6 2(1 789 .. 48 .. 5,814| .. 5,475 291 4,969 91 ]() 3a 556 34 3,959 "89 "48 International. Originally addressed to other countries :— Returned to writers Destroyed in accordance with law .. Returned to other countries as unolaimec 5,949 379 5,529 128 8 35 998! .. 47| .. 17,921i .. 8,272 439 7,091 109 15, 44 963 45 20,719 "53 "67 Totals [123,799 2,319 5,728 124,842 39,192 160,307 1,959; 5,361 116,086 44,687

1890. 1899. 1900. 1901. Postal Districts. From Places beyond the Colony. Begistered in the Colony. Totals. From Places beyond the Colony. Registered in the Colony. Totals. From Places beyond the Colony. Registered in the Colony. Totale. From Places beyond the Colony. Registered in the Colony. Totals. Auckland Thames New Plymouth .. Gisborne Napier Wanganui Wellington Blenheim Nelson Westport Greymouth Hokitika Christehurch Timaru Oamaru Dunedin In verc argil] 7,119 130 341 118 999 211 6,129 92 322 112 102 95 3,659 312 278 j 4,615 ; 1,740 26,374 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 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 22,929i 78,947i 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 i 24,779 i 93,287 5,568 12,658 8,050; 9,080i 4,447| 53,3121 9,198 7,407 27,367' 18,108 267+ 1,310 421 1,659 2,151! 9,513] 116 644 354 680 94| 5,404 1,196 120 6,954 3,352 1101,533 I 19,912 16,903 7,193 26,685 ! 24,980 85,915 0,371 14,726 6,974 11,606 4,344 49,049 9,973 8,880 44,003 24,989 119,641 20,179 18,213 7,614 28,344 27,131 95,428 6,487 15,370 7,328 12,286 4,438 54,453 11,169 9,000 50,957 28,341 18,577 302 1,498 421 1,952 2,364: 13,5951 116 ! 1,018: 880 602 503 ! 5,690 1,260 116 7,746 5,107 117,891 22,768 18,306 6,468 26,404 : 32,707 1106,859 8,071 14,814 8,518 13,776 6,634 56,399 10,736 7,815 53,324 26,071 136,468 23,070 19,804 6,889 28,356 35,071 120,454 8,187 15,832 9,398 14,378 7,137 62,089 11,996 7,931 61,070 31,178 Totals 169,321 195,695 54,371 434,766 489,137 52,343 464,036 516,379 61,747 537,561 599,308