F.—l

XIII

In addition, 1 gold watch, 1 gold wrist watch, 16 silver watches, 2 metal keyless watches, 1 Waterbury watch, portions of 2 rolled-gold American Waltham watches, 1 gold chain, 3 silver chains, 1 steel chain, 23 gold-mounted greenstone brooches, 6 gold brooches, 7 silver brooches, 1 metal brooch, 15 gold rings, 2 gold-mounted greenstone pendants, 4 silver-mounted greenstone pendants, 7 greenstone pendants, 2 greenstone bracelets, 3 gold bangles, 3 pairs of gold sleeve-links, 1 gold locket with three small rubies, 1 pair of gold-rimmed spectacles, 1 gold-mounted greenstone bean, 1 greenstone cross, 3 silver sovereign cases, 4 greenstone hearts, 1 greenstone ornament, 2 military ornaments, 2 rubies, 11 pieces of greenstone, 1 gold charm, 8 gold pins, 3 servietterings, 4 silver butter-knives, 6 purses, 1 small silver tray, 1 piece of kauri-gum, 2 studs, 3 small pieces of gold, 1 bread-fork, 1 necklace, 2 trinkets, 17 packets and 39 sheets of foreign stamps, 1 silver coin (foreign), 22 thimbles, 6 pawn tickets, 32 share certificates, 19 Tattersall tickets, 1 half-adult return saloon ticket Wellington to London, 1 half-adult steerage ticket Wellington to Bluff, 1 order for steerage passage Capetown to Wellington, 1 second-class railway ticket Dunedin to Christchurch, half a bank-note, 2 horse-registration certificates, 1 second-class engineer's certificate, and 8 lottery tickets were dealt with.

The number of inland, intercolonial, and international articles received and disposed of during the years 1903 and 1904 was as under:—

Missing Letters. 2,007 inquiries for letters and 1,579 for other articles alleged to have been posted and not delivered were made during 1904. In 1,050 of the inquiries for letters and 833 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. Found to have been 92 57 ... Missent, misdelivered, or otherwise delayed through fault of Post Office. 87 60 ... Delayed in delivery through fault of addressees. 66 48 ... Not posted. 37 55 ... Posted later than advised ; forwarded by slower routes than letters of advice, &c. 142 131 ... Defectively or wrongly addressed. 82 46 ... Mislaid or lost after delivery. 72 21 ... Returned through Dead-letter Office as unclaimed, &c. 472 415 ... Delivered. Reason for inquiry not given, but probably in most cases omission by addressees to acknowledge receipt. 1,050 833 Money-orders. Twenty money-order offices were opened during the year—namely, Ballance, Castleclifi, Cheltenham, Greenmeadows, Grey Lynn, Gumtown, Hinakura, Hukerenui, Kilbirnie, Koeke, Mataroa, Mornington, Muritai, Ohura, Oio, Pihama, Pirinoa, Turangarere, Waimamaku, and Whitford. Four offices were closed —namely, Opitonui, Piriaka, Riverhead, and Tokatea. The number of office.s open at the end of the year was 526, as against 510 twelve months previously. 407,783 money-orders were issued for £1,476,887 Bs. 5d., as compared with 396,312 for £1,416,224 12s. 4d. in 1903—an increase of 11,471 in number and £60,662 16s. Id. in amount. 313,267 money-orders amounting to £1,267,351 os. lid. were paid, as against 304,106 for £1,224,842 12s. 4d. during 1903—an increase of 9,161 orders and £42,508 Bs. 7d.

1903. 1904. Lettors Letter - Post- p-M.-*. News- LettBr . a Letter- Post- p.., kptB Newsletters. oar(Js car(Jg rackets. papers . setters. oards cards racKets. paperSi Inland. Returned, delivered, &c, through Deadletter Office Returned by Chief Postmasters direct .. Destroyed in accordance with law 88,463 88,132 8,333 2,000 452^ 5,788 166 183 17,698j 86,277 1,229 1,650 501787 101,908 81,345 8,684 2,557 753 53 17,369 1,800 4,325! 88,830 .. 405j 1,599 55,307 Australian. Originally addressed to other States :— Returned to writers Destroyed in accordance with law .. Returned to other States as unclaimed 5,366 218 8,387 144 ! 25 1 56 400 515 33 4,831 4,9021 633! 12,900 "37 68 703 .. 129i 64 .. 615: 5,749 .. International. Originally addressed to other countries :— Returned to writers Destroyed in accordance with law .. Returned to other countries as unclaimed 10,679 386 8,890 "63, 370 149 499 966 60 29,455 10,072 828 11,628 316 l,059i .. 595 97 .. 905 31,966 291 350 103 Totals 218,854 2,254 8,041j 141,064 52,787 232,900 3,450 7,411 147,436 57,398