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The s.s. " Koi," with the Motueka-Nelson mail on board, foundered in Nelson Harbour on 30th March, 1910. The mail was subsequently recovered. The Tokaanu-Waiouru mail-coach was blocked by snow on the 20th June, 1910. The mails were despatched by rail via Rotorua. Floods in Hawke's Bay and Marlborough districts interrupted mail-communication during the end of June and the beginning of July, 1910. The Shannon-Foxton mail-service was temporarily suspended through a flood on the 15th July, 1910. The Cass-Otira mail-coach was delayed by floods on the 20th December, 1910. On the 13th March, 1911, the Gisborne-Tolaga Bay mail-coach capsized in the surf at Waihau, the mail being damaged to some extent. Dead and Missing Letters. The undermentioned articles of value were found in letters opened in the Dead Letter Office, and returned to senders where practicable: 708 post-office orders, £1,779 2s. lid.; 38 bank-drafts, £1,633 ss. Bd.; 718 cheques, £6,267 2s. 10Jd.; 27 dividend-warrants, £98 Is. Id.; 18 promissory notes, £674 7s. 7d.; postal notes, £785 os. 6d.: British postal orders, £74 Is. ■ stamps, £52 lis. 4d. ; banknotes, £433 ; gold, £54 ; silver and copper, £12 12s. llfd. : representing a total of £11,863 ss. lid. Amongst other things, there were dealt with 9 gold watches, 15 silver watches. 23 gold rings, 6 gold watch-chains, 3 gold bangles. 12 gold brooches, 60 greenstone ornaments, 1 gold medal, 1 gold neck-chain, 1 jewelled pendant, 1 gold cross, 3 pieces of polished greenstone, 2 silver spoons, 1 silver jug, 5 silver medals, 4 boars-tusks, 3 steamer-tickets, 1 passage-order Auckland to London, 1 passage-order Sydney to Melbourne, 15 pawn-tickets, 14 share certificates, and 34 lottery-tickets. The proportion of dead or unclaimed letters, letter-cards, and post-cards to the total number delivered within the Dominion was 0-39 per cent. 179,850 letters were opened and returned to the writers through the Dead Letter Office. 45,551 were returned unopened to other countries ; 559 were reissued ; 24,200 were destroyed ; 174,179 were returned by Chief Postmasters ; a total of 424,339 letters, as compared with 428,766 in 1909. 41,642 other articles were returned to foreign countries : 5,704 were returned to the senders through the Dead Letter Office ; 204,881 were returned by Chief Postmasters : a total of 252,227 other articles, as compared with 235,688 in 1909. 5,855 letters were wrongly addressed : 14 letters were discovered to have been posted with previously used stamps ; 5,901 unclaimed registered letters were dealt with. 5,006 newspapers and 2,926 books and other articles without addresses were received, many of which were subsequently applied for and delivered. 21,672 newspapers were returned to the publishers. 1,966 letters and 652 letter-cards were posted without addresses. Ninety-nine letters with libellous addresses were intercepted. 4,050 inquiries for postal packets alleged to have been posted and not delivered were made during 1910. In 2,164 of the inquiries—over one-half of the total number—the investigations by the Department resulted in the missing articles being traced or accounted for. These may be summarized as follows :— Number of Result Traced Cases. 611 .. .. .. .. Sender responsible for delay. 388 .. .. .. .. Addressee responsible for delay. 232 .. .. .. .. Post Office responsible for delay. 933 .. .. .. .. No delay, or responsibility not fixed. 2,164 A cheque for £4,880, at Christchurch, was posted in a posting-box loose. Offences. For stealing a letter and cashing money-orders to the value of £71 7s. sd. contained therein, two men at Dunedin were ordered to repay the amount by instalments, and to come up for sentence when called upon. On a charge of theft at the Molesworth Post-office, and concealment of the act by means of forged telegrams, a man was sentenced at Christchurch, to three years' imprisonment. For stealing a postal packet containing a cheque for £20 15s. Bd. a youth at Auckland was admitted to probation for two years. For illegally opening a postal packet a man at Auckland was sentenced to seven days' hard labour. A man was sentenced at Wellington to three years' imprisonment with hard labour for forging a telegram. For posting a letter bearing a previously used stamp a young man was lined ss. with costs at Auckland. For stealing small sums of money from the Department an officer was sentenced to six months' imprisonment. For stealing a postal note from a letter an officer was sentenced at Wanganui to nine months' imprisonment. An officer charged with the theft of money from letters at Feilding was sentenced at Wellington to six months' imprisonment.