9

F.—l

Among the many branches of work undertaken during the year those deserving of particular mention are Customs duties collected of a total amount of £97,723, and for the same Department £15,132 for beer duty. The agencies for the State Advances, Public Trust, and Government Insurance Departments lead to a vvvy large amount of business. The amount received for the State Advances reached a total of £1,444,137, for the Public Trustee £1,047,408, and for the Government Insurance £268,255; while the amounts paid were £1,461,323 for the State Advances and £1,041,870 for the Public Trustee. Land and income taxes may be paid al any money-order office; and the total amount of these taxes received during the year was £3,761,895. For the Valuation Department fees amounting to £7,041 were collected. A very large number of claims chargeable to the appropriations made by Parliament are paid through the medium of the Post Office on behalf of the Treasury. Last year the amount so paid in cash was £5,775,145. For the Pensions Department £564,183 was paid on account of old-age pensions, £47,293 on account of military pensions, £49,628 on account of widows' pensions, £377,291 on account of war pensions, and £1.1,816 on account of miners' pensions. Contributions to the National Provident Fund collected by Postmasters amounted to £28,920. £215,853 was paid out on behalf of the Public Service Superannuation Fund, and £71,202 on behalf of the Teachers' Superannuation Fund. Among the items which do not bulk largely with regard to amount but involve numerous transactions may be mentioned the sale of fishing licenses, to the value of £1,303, and game licenses, £3,837; machinery- and boiler-certificate fees collected, £11,549; mining'licenses, £190; and sanatorium receipts, £1,822. On behalf of the British Government £30,167 was paid to Imperial pensioners resident in New Zealand. For the registration of births, deaths, and marriages and the performance of the marriage ceremony Postmasters collected £2,714. Discount stamps valued at £582 and numbering 558,720 were sold, but the popularity of these stamps seems to be steadily diminishing,,the sales being practically confined to Wellington. The work performed in connection with the payment of allotments made by members of the New Zealand military Forces has assumed very large proportions, the number of payments made reaching the large total of 753,632, of an amount of £3,455,333. Some idea of the other services performed may be obtained from the balance-sheet of the Post Office Account. Telegraphs. The telegraph revenue shows a marked increase, which is due principally to two causes —(1) the increased telegraph rates which are in force, and (2) payments received from the Defence Department on account of the immense amount of work performed for that Department. The grand total of the telegraph revenue, including telephone exchanges and miscellaneous receipts, amounted to £861.233, equivalent to an increase of almost T97 per cent. If to this be added the value of "free" Government telegrams, the total amounts to £868,182. The payments made on account of these services amounted to £803,691, an increase equal to about 1524 per cent. The expenditure for salaries is below normal on account of the large number of officers at the war who are replaced by temporary and other lower-paid officers. There is still a steadily increasing number of bureau communications, the number having increased from 4,382,823 to 5,040,672, an increase of 657,849. The number of telegrams increased from 5,742,739 to 5,828,198, an increase of 85,459. The total number of offices open on the 31st March was 2,371. Of these, 335 are Morse telegraph-offices and 2,036 telephone-offices. From the 535 private wires and subsidized lines the amount of rent and maintenance received was £3,540. The various telegraph tables give full particulars with reference to telegrams handled. The total number of all codes dealt with was 11,624,720, an increase of 749,600 over the previous year. The proportion of paid telegrams per unit of population was 1003. While ordinary telegrams show the increase in number already referred to, the revenue therefrom increased by £1.4,687. Urgent ordinary telegrams show an increase of 67,074, the increase of revenue being £9,927. The number of Press telegrams fell from 304,1.92 to 270,352, and the revenue derived therefrom fell from £25,373 to £24,092. The bureau business, in addition to showing an increase in number, gave a greater revenue by £24,571. At the same time the average value of each bureau message increased from 6'B9d. to 7'l6d. The Government messages for which no payment was received totalled during the year 114,010. Their value at ordinary rates amounted to £6,949. The number of paid telegrams forwarded amounted to B'9 messages for every 100 letters posted in New Zealand. The maintenance of existing telegraph arid inter-urban telephone lines has been given careful attention during the year, the number of miles overhauled or reconstructed in each Telegraph Engineer's district being as follows: Auckland, 389 miles; Wellington, 860 miles; Canterbury, 40 miles; Otago, 183 miles; Nelson, 263 miles. The very difficult work of restoring communication with Puysegur Point was successfully accomplished.

2—F. 1.