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the only places at which, the pre-war evening or early morning clearance of postingboxes had not been restored. The delay in these two instances is due solely to shortage of staff, but every effort is being made to overcome this shortage, and it is anticipated that the night or early morning clearance of posting-boxes at Wellington and Auckland will be restored in the near future. In the restoration of the evening clearances the position of areas which have developed in the post-war period has not been overlooked, and as far as practicable these areas are being included in the general scheme. Extended use has been made of road motor services and morning newspaper service cars for the conveyance of letter-mails. Action in this direction is continuing. MISSING POSTAL PACKETS The number of complaints concerning the non-delivery of postal packets of all kinds received and investigated by the Department during the year was 7,356. In 3,769 cases, more than half the total number, the inquiries resulted in the missing articles being traced or accounted for satisfactorily. These cases may be summarized as follow : Sender responsible for delay .. .. .. .. 1,108 Addressee responsible for delay .. .. .. .. 1,039 Post Office responsible for delay .. .. .. 395 No delay or responsibility not fixed .. .. .. 1,227 In 3,587 cases the manner of the disposal of the missing postal packets could not be determined. This figure represents 0-00118 per cent, of the total number of articles posted during the year. POSTAGE-STAMPS The denominations of the Pictorial series remaining on sale on the 30th April — namely, 2d., 2|d., 4d., 5d., 6d., Bd., 9d., Is., 25., and 3s.—were withdrawn from sale on that date, as were also all the Pictorial stamps overprinted " Official " and the Is. 3d. duty stamp. The following additional denominations of the King George VI series were placed on sale on the Ist May : 2d., 4d., 5d., 6d., Bd., 9d., Is., Is. 3d. (formerly a duty stamp), 25., and 3s. Thus a complete range of stamps of this series is now available from all post-offices. The Is., Is. 3d., 25., and 3s. values are printed in two colours and the others in a single colour. The following denominations of the King George VI stamps overprinted " Official " ■ —2 d., 4d., 6d., Bd., 9d., Is., and 2s.—were also placed on sale on the Ist May. A new issue of postage-stamps for use by the Government Life Insurance Department was introduced on the Ist August, 1947. All the designs for this series were prepared by Mr. J. Berry, of Wellington, and the printing was carried out by the intaglio process by Messrs. Bradbury, Wilkinson, and Co., Ltd., New Maiden, England. The use of these stamps is limited to the prepayment of postage on correspondence posted by the Government Life Insurance Department for delivery within New Zealand.

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