9

F.—l

Repayment to immigrants of the amounts deposited with the High Commissioner for New Zealand in London is now undertaken by the Department. Telegraphs. The total value of the telegraph and telephone business for the year ended 31st March, 1914, including miscellaneous telegraph receipts and Government telegrams, was £579,816, as compared with £528,120 for the previous year, an increase of £51,696, or 9 - 79 per cent. The following is a comparison of the traffic in paid telegrams during the last five years :— Number. Receipts. 1909-10 ... 7,757,128 Increase, 5-71 per cent. ... 244,906 Increase, 4-88 per cent. 1910-11 ... 8,268,340 „ 6-59 „ ... 265,624 „ 8-45 1911-12 ... 8,971,725 „ 8-51 „ ... 288,431 „ 8-59 1912-13 ... 9,850,379 „ 9-79 313,960 „ 885 1913-14 ... 10,594,556 „ 7-55 „ ... 334,221 „ 6-45 The number of telegrams forwarded and the receipts therefrom during the four quarters of the financial years 1912-13 and 1913-14 respectively are as follows :—

The telegraph receipts for the financial year, including telephone-exchange subscriptions, privatewire rents, &c, amounted to £574,786, as compared with £523,189 in 1912-13, an increase of £51,597, or 9-86 per cent. The payments were £563,108 16s. 9d., as against £509,496 13s. 7d. for the previous year— an increase of £53,612 3s. 2d., or 10-52 per cent. The amount expended on telegraph-extension was £392,648, with liabilities amounting to £235,666 on account of works for which the authority of Parliament was granted too late for the necessary expenditure to be brought within the financial year. The net payment in 1912-13 was £251,375. The number of private wires and subsidized lines was 534, as compared with 517 in 1912-13. The amount received for rent and maintenance, &c, of such lines was £3,553, as against £3,866 in 1912-13. The extension of lines into remote districts is proceeding vigorously, and 131 new offices were opened during the year. The total number of telegraph and telephone offices open at the close of the year was 2,305. Of these, 316 were Morse-telegraph offices and 1,989 were telephone-offices. The total number of telegraph and telephone offices combined with post-offices was 1,946 ; not combined, 359. The offices at Raglan, St. Kilda, and Tirau were converted from telephone to Morse; and those at Aratapu, Green Island, Utiku, and Wellington North from Morse to telephone. The number of telegrams of all codes forwarded during the last financial year was 10,694,032 —an increase of 749,760, or 7-54 per cent, over 1912-13. The proportion of paid telegrams per unit of population was 9-43, and 8-93 the previous year. The number of ordinary telegrams forwarded was 6,265,463, of the value of £198,405, compared with 6,177,847, of the value of £193,787, in 1912-13—an increase of 87,616 in number, and of £4,618 in amount. The urgent telegrams numbered 309,152, of the value of £20,354 —an increase of 28,882 in number and £2,100 in amount. ■ "The average value of each ordinary telegram was 7-6 d., and of each urgent telegram Is. 3-80 d. 481,564 Press telegrams, of the value of £24,053, were forwarded in 1913-14, as compared with 456,350, valued at £23,424, forwarded in 1912-13 —-an increase in number of 25,214, or 5-53 per cent., and an increase of £629, or 2-77 per cent, in value. 'The value of each Press telegram averaged 11-99 d., as against Is. 0-32 d. in 1912-13. The bureau messages numbered 3,538,377, of the value of £91,409, as compared with 2,935,912, of the value of £78,496, in 1912-13 —-an increase of 602,465 in number and £12,913 in amount. i j The average value of each bureau message was 6-20 d., as against 642 d. in 1912-13. The number of Government telegrams forwarded was 99,476, valued at £5,030, as comparedjwith 93,893, valued at £4,931 —an increase of 5,583 in number, and £99 in amount. The number of paid forwarded telegrams to every hundred letters posted in New Zealand was 9-58.

2—F. 1.

Numl )er of Telegrai forwarded. •evenue. Quarter. Year ended 31st March, 1913. Year ended 31 at March, 1914. Increase Year ended percent. 31st March, 1913. Year ended 31st March, 1914. a a |S •SS. June quarter September quarter December quarter March quarter ... 2,341,714 2,308,351 2,565,435 2,634,879 2,464,650 2,425,366 2,804,542 2,899,998 5*25 5-07 9'32 10'06 £ s. 75,180 1 73,973 1 81,318 8 83,488 13 d. 4 6 n £ s. 77,738 18 76,656 5 89,256 10 90,568 19 d. H 0 6 1 3-40 3-63 9-76 8-48 9,850,379 10,594,556 7-55 ! 313,960 5 1 334,220 12 11 J 6-45