F.— 1

XIX

Return for same Period of Number of Payments and Amounts in each Postal District.

Inland Mails. Owing to an alteration in the steamer service to Russell and other northern ports necessitating the rearrangement of the mail-service, the offer of the Northern Steamship Company to convey mails from Auckland to Mangonui was approved on the Bth November, 1907, conditionally on a launch meeting the steamer at Whangaroa. The launch service was obtained. The new service gives increased facilities to the settlers in the north. The arrangement is for one year. An overland weekly mail-service was authorised between Motu and Opotiki, so as to provide a through service from Gisborne to Opotiki by the inland road. The contract is for one year only, from the Ist October, 1907, as the route is likely to be materially shortened in about twelve months' time. A daily mail-service joining the railheads of the North Island Main Trunk Railway was instituted between Ohakune and Makatote on the 19th September, 1907. As from the Ist February, 1908, the New Plymouth Harbour Board has undertaken the duties of landing, checking, and despatching mails at New Plymouth Breakwater, also shipping and weatherreporting. Captain Hood, of the Harbour Board staff, performed the work for eight years previously.! Serious fires in the Forty-mile Bush interfered with mail-services in January, 1908. By way of trial, departmental locked late-letter boxes were in September, 1907, placed on the gangways of the ferry-steamers running between Wellington and Lyttelton. The boxes are opened by postal officers at each port of destination. The trial has proved satisfactory, no complaints respecting letters posted in them having been made. The Chatham Islands two-monthly mail-service contract has been let to the Canterbury Steam Shipping Company (Limited) for three years from the Ist May, 1908, at £350 per annum. The steamer will leave Lyttelton about the Ist June, August, October, December, February, and April of each year. The Blenheim-Nelson mail-coach capsized over an embankment on the Wakapuaka Road on the 21st May, 1908. The driver and three passengers escaped without serious hurt. A special holiday train, Tadmor to Nelson, collided with the Nclson-Riwaka mail-coach at Appleby Crossing on Ist February, 1908. The mails were not damaged. A passenger was killed, and two other passengers and the coach-driver were injured, the latter seriously. From the 4th February, 1908, the Nelson-Longford and Westport-Longford coaches made Murchison the end of the stage, instead of Longford. As the mail-coach was crossing the Buller River at Nine-mile, six miles from Westport, on the 10th May, 1908, the ferry-punt broke loose, and the coach fell into the river, the horses being drowned. The passengers and mails were saved. During the winter and spring of 1907, June-September, the usual interruptions in mail-services occurred. None of the stoppages was prolonged, however, and services were performed with commendable regularity. As there is no tourist traffic at all, and very little traffic of any kind from Fairlie to the Hermitage, during the winter, the winter mail-service, which has hitherto been performed by motor-car to Lake Tekapo twice weekly and thence by coach to Lake Pukaki weekly, is now performed, from the Ist May to the 31st October, by coach over both stages. The Auckland Electric Tramways Company has agreed to issue special tickets available for departmental employees in uniform. The estimated cost for the year for letter-carriers, Post Office messengers, and Telegraph message-boys is £306.

Postal Distriot. 1 Number of Payments. 1906-7. .907-8. Amount. Number of Payments. Amount. Auckland... Blenheim... Christchurch Dunedin ... Gisborne ... Greymouth Hokitika ... Invercargill Napier Nelson New Plymouth Oamaru ... Thames ... Timaru ... Wanganui Wellington Westport... 31,409 1,763 24,767 23,563 1,278 6,129 6,108 9,756 5,337 3,316 2,987 2,980 5,665 5,203 4,427 14,298 3,516 £ a. d. 64,401 3 10 3,549 2 10 51,109 18 10 48,133 16 7 2,460 13 9 13,059 12 3 12,988 3 4 20,286 16 1 10,673 18 3 6,716 0 5 5,933 12 1 6,176 15 6 11,983 5 1 10,594 0 0 9,278 3 10 29,375 12 7 7,484 0 6 33,147 1,797 26,008 24,828 1,238 6,016 6,303 9,842 5,580 3,397 2,902 3,365 5,795 5,500 4,592 14,821 3,651 £ a. 67,914 19 3,665 7 53,565 2 50,225 6 2,263 5 12,744 12 13,360 7 20,366 18 11,018 1 6,887 12 5,798 17 6,930 10 12,169 1 10,957 9 9,575 15 30,022 10 7,754 16 d. 1 9 6 8 2 2 0 3 3 3 3 4 6 9 6 7 2 Totals 152,502 £314,204 15 9 158,782 £325,220 13 2