POST OFFICE MEMS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2240, 30 September 1889, Page 2

POST OFFICE MEMS.

The Post Office records show that tba avernge New Zealander Is a fair correspondent. Last year 19J million letters, and 833 thotuund poat-cards were posted. The average New Zealander does not. however, write so maty letters aa ha receives, for while 19£ million letteri were posted, nearly 21 millions were delivered. The difference is probabl* very largely made up o! foreign trade circulars In le ter form. Thevaltfe ot 6 stamps used is estimated at ib_GO 000 A goad many New Zealander. 5? ng _-■ « I r ' weepondeace, for no less than 87,307 letters were d^alt with by the Dead Letter Office ; most ot these were opened a,nd returned to the writere a large proporion we're returned un opened, the writers having put their own names ou tho envelope ; 5,246 were destroyed,— t c oncers oould make nothing of them. In the letters opened m the ofg o th.re wag fo<>nd money m one shape or other to the total of £2 347. Be* sides the money, seven watobei, a lookat.

silk handkerchiefs were dealt with,— re turned to the senders where practicable No lees than 3713 regis 1 e-ed lefern were unc'a'med, 65 letters were posted withou 1 addrerse^, 13 with libellous RdoVrBPS were in'e:o?pted ; 12 viers posted with previousy used stamps; 4962 were re r u"pd by the addressees. There aro 609 diff rent inland mall services ; 176 by Coßch or cart, 283 by horse, 5 < by .'oot men, 32 ly water, tnd 68 by railway, The total length of the inland maii lin«B is 9440 miles, and rr ckoning the number of times eeoh travels ia the yea* th mi bags travel an aggregate of 3,653,620 rriles, Tho average cost of each t»ip is 1 71 d p9r mil© Nearly 8^ million new?rapers were de'ivered through iha pift and over 2\ millio» s of books end surp'o packets. Fees to a total amount of £4187 10s were collected for 3717 private boxes *nd 301 private bags Over 90 tons of pirce's were posted. The money order tffiaes, 303 In number. Issued orders for a total of £555,995 Postal notes to the value of £56 039 were sold. At tho end of the yeat, 88,486 people btd £2,048,441 In the Post Offioe Savings Bank ; of that number 122 h*d over £500 eaoh to their oredlt, end 6,049 had over £100 eaoh m the bank. Dnring the year 1,765,863 telegrams of all kinds were transmitted; the telegratna were 9 05 per cent of the number of lexers posted m tbe oolony. There are 4.790 miles of telegraphs* Fourteen towns have telephone exchanges, with a total of 2,254 ■übioribers. The telephone instillation! cast £59,755 ; the sabcoriptions amounted to £17,613, and the ooßt of maintenance to £11 244. Tbe post, telegraphs, and talephones employ 2.071 persons.— Exchange.