F.—l

XVI

The number of inland, intercolonial, and international articles received and disposed of during the years 1906 and 1907 was as under : —

A sale of unclaimed articles from the Dead-letter Office for the period from the Ist January to the 31st December, 1905, was held by public auction on the 31st August, 1907. An upset price was fixed on lots containing dutiable articles. Missing Letters. 1,797 inquiries for letters and 1,434 for other articles alleged to have been posted and not delivered were made during 1907. In 926 of the inquiries for letters and 834 for other articles — over one-half the total number—the investigations by the Department resulted Jn 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 76 95 Missent, misdehvered, or otherwise delayed through fault of Fost Office. 74 60 ..." Delayed in delivery through fault of addressees. 2i 13 ... Not posted. 26 37 ... Posted later than stated; forwarded by slower routes than letters of advice, &c. 140 71 ■■• Defectively or wrongly addressed. 56 39 ... Mislaid or lost after delivery. 73 37 ... Eeturned through Dead-letter Office as unclaimed, &c. 460 482 ... Delivered. Season for inquiry not given, but probably in most cases omission by addressees to acknowledge receipt. 926 . 834 As instancing the recklessness with which the Post-office is charged with shortcomings when expected letters are not delivered, it may be mentioned that the allegation was made to a Chief Postmaster that four letters containing valuable enclosures had gone astray in the Post [Office. Inquiry showed that one letter had not been posted, the second had been mislaid by the addressee, the third had been duly delivered, and the fourth had been misaddressed. Money-orders. Twenty-one money-order offices were opened during the year—namely, Clareville, Government Buildings, Hastwell's, Hinuera, Kakahi, Makatote, Mokai, Motu, Okoroire, Opua, Orawia, Paekakariki, Puketapu, Tangiteroria, Tapawera, Te Kiri, Waharoa, Waiharara, West Lynn, Whareama, and Wtvitawhata. One office was closed—namely, Exhibition (Christchurch). The number of offices open at the end of the year was 579, against 559 twelve months previously. 441,487 money-orders were issued, for £1,773,590 17s. Id., as compared with 439,020, for £1,686,231 Is. lid.,'in 1906, an increase of 2,467 in number and £87,359 15s. 2d. in amount. 337,791 money-orders, amounting to £1,523,907 17s. 4d., were paid, as against 332,560, for £1,434,038 6s. 5d., during 1906, an increase of 5,231 orders and £89,869 10s. lid. in amount. There were 73,763 telegraph money-orders issued, for £298,630 19s. Id., as compared with 68,194 orders, for £261,488 3s. lid., in 1906, an increase of 5,569 in number and £37,142 15s. 2d. in amount. 136,063 orders, for £383,790 12s. 9d., were issued on places beyond New Zealand, as against 137,370 orders, for £373,960 Bs. 7d., during 1906. 32,012 orders, for £132,150 125., were issued in places beyond New Zealand for payment in the Dominion, as compared with 30,776 orders, for £125,651 135., during the previous year. The commission received for money-orders amounted to £18,846 12s. 6d., as against £18,278 10s. 3d. received during 1906. . From the Ist July, 1907, a system of advice of payment of money-orders was introduced, whereby a remitter of a money-order issued in New Zealand on any money-order office within the Dominion,

1906. 1907. Lett Letter- Post- Pa „ keta cards. ' cards. acKets - News- T , pUfiT .. Letter- Post- Packets Newspapers. Xjetters - cards, cards. racKels - papers. Inland. leturned, delivered, &c, through Deadletter Office letnrned by Chief Postmasters direct .. Destroyed in accordance with law 115,347 111,491 16,737 3,035 l'ioo 1,040 6,175 •4,579 24,407] 154,578] 7,6801 j 1,675 ]10,261 196,478 140,494] 145,085 13,336 1,183 *550 1,588 8,857 f9,669 22,955 187,059 3,447 44,122 79,998 Australian. Mginally addressed to other States :— Returned to writers Destroyed in accordance with law .. Returned to other States as unclaimed 6,221 948 14,034 '*45 406 711 1,876 455 199' 8,437i 6,648 623 16,210 60 35 211 1,287 2,765 504! 220] 10,264' 771 31085 International. Mginally addressed to other countries: — Returned to writers Destroyed in accordance with law .. Returned to other countries as unclaimed 10,453 1,499; 13,862] 1,066 1,871 2,290 1,205] 380 1 31,575, 11,715 1,095 22,843 120 65 420 2,556 3,057 1,036 335 45,682 "85 1*743 2*197 Totals 290,592 4,265| [20,014! 228,916 110,928 358,049| 2,013 30,410! 271,502 129,402 * Including 1,000 post-cards detained, bearing imitation postage stamps, lost-oards detained. 1 In. eluding 4,000 ti: iselled