F.—l.

The number of licenses at the 31st March represented 19-6 licenses per hundred of population, and indicates that 84"2 per cent, of the households in the Dominion are now equipped with receivingsets. The number of free licenses issued at the 31st March was 966. Prosecutions for the use of unlicensed receiving-sets during the year numbered 999, the amount in fines totalling £826. RADIO-DEALERS' LICENSES. The number of radio-dealers' licenses at the 31st March was 1,259, 65 fewer than at the end of the previous year. PRIVATE BROADCASTING-STATIONS. There were six private broadcasting-stations licensed at the 31st March, four fewer than were licensed a year previously. The decrease in number was due to the control of Station 4ZC, Cromwell, being assumed by the National Broadcasting Service, and to Stations IZJ, Auckland, 2ZH, Napier, and 2ZP, Wairoa, being dismantled. PRIVATE EXPERIMENTAL STATIONS. The number of private experimental (amateur) stations licensed at the 31st March was 1,089, an increase of 40 over the number at the corresponding date last year. During the year authority was given for licenses for the operation of amateur transmitting-stations to be issued free of charge to blind persons. As certain technical and Morse-operating qualifications are necessary before a transmitting license can be issued, a special examination has been arranged for blind applicants, and at present there are three qualified blind persons operating amateur stations.

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