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amount of an individual money-order has been limited to £20 in any one day. Such messages are subject to the ordinary inland rate of money-order commission. The system is of great benefit to residents of Chatham Islands, who, in the absence of ordinary commercial banking-facilities, are glad of the means of transacting business with the mainland with, such facility and absence of delay. REORGANIZATION OF ENGINEERING DISTRICTS. The organization of the Wellington Engineering District was changed from the Ist September, 1927, to provide for the assumption by the Telegraph Engineers in the subdistricts of a greater share of responsibility for local management, thus relieving the District Telegraph Engineer at Wellington of some of his duties and enabling him to devote more time to the practical side of the Department's engineering activities. The keynote of the. change was centralization of principles and decentralization of details. The result has been greater economy and more efficient warking. A similar arrangement was adopted at Auckland in regard to the Hamilton Subdistrict. WORK PERFORMED FOR OTHER DEPARTMENTS. As in previous years, work performed in the behalf of other Departments formed an appreciable portion of the duties of my officers. The money handled in this respect amounted to approximately £26,000,000. This amount, high as it is, represents but a fraction of the cash value of the whole of the transactions of the Post and Telegraph Department, which for the year just past amounted to £194,405,000. My Department pays and receives moneys for practically all other Departments. The largest sums handled are in. respect of the Pensions, Public Trust, Land and Income Tax, and State Advances Departments. Since the introduction of the rural-intermediate-credit system my Department has undertaken the collection and payment of moneys on behalf of the Rural Intermediate Credit Board. REGISTRATION OF MOTOR-VEHICLES. The system of registration of motor-vehicles continues to work smoothly, and, judging by the almost complete absence of adverse criticism, it would appear that the system gives general satisfaction. The advantages of having a central register are fully appreciated not only by the police and Traffic Inspectors, but also by motor-traders, who frequently need assistance in tracing vehicles. The experiment of showing a prefix letter on registration-plates for commercial vehicles revealed that incorrect fees were paid in but few cases, and, as the benefit derivable from prefix letters was not commensurate with the additional expenditure involved in providing distinctive plates, it was decided to abandon the use of prefix letters in future years. Registration-plates for the year 1928-29 (white numerals on a brown background) were manufactured by the Precision. Engineering Co., Wellington, which supplied- the plates for the previous year. The 1928-29 plates are considered to be superior to those previously supplied by the firm. The relicensing of motor-vehicles for the year 1928-29 was commenced on the Ist February, 1928 —two months before the beginning of the new registration year. Owners generally, however, failed to take advantage of the opportunity afforded of relicensing early, only six thousand vehicles being relicensed in February. During the early part of March the response at many offices was not encouraging, and during the last week in March considerable congestion, was caused owing to approximately 60 per cent, of owners delaying relicensing until the last moment.

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