POSTAL RETURNS.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18892, 6 January 1927, Page 6

POSTAL RETURNS.

INCREASE IN STAMP SALES. [THE PRESS Special Serrico.j } WELLINGTON, January o. Figures supplied by the postal authorities to-day showed that from. December 21st to December 24th £5862 was taken for stamp sales alone in Wellington against £5726 in Auckland for a similar period. The sales in both centres show an increase in takings on tho previous year. The amount of money spent in stamps from December 21st to December 24th was £29,990, m against £27,824 for the eorrospondinc days during the previous year. This covers the 18 Chief Poet Offices of the Dominion where the following amounts of stamps were sold, the value of 1925 being shown theses: Auckland £6726 (&848), Blenheim £395 (£187) «™s«rch' £3737 (£3481), Dunedin £2BOO (£1619) Gisborne £470 (£49B)S Greyraouth £720 (£753), Hamilton £1523 (£lo30), Invercargill £1196 (£1094), Najpier £2265 (£1647;, Nelson £283 (£569;, New Plymouth £914 (£1264), Oaroaru £346 (£269), Palmerston North £1558 (£1628), Thames £664 (£812), Timaru £759 (£1011), Wanganui £1122 (£1311), Wellington £5862 (£5010), Wretport £252 (£255). The number of telegrams forwarded throughout New Zealand for the same four days was 137,991, as against 142,373 for the samo period the previous year. Received messages were also lower, a faiiing-off of 3.417 per cent, being observed for those days. In 1925 176,640 were received, while the 1928 figures were 170,605. More messages were transmitted, however, last year than in the previous year, the number for the four days being 263,600 against 258,340 transmitted for the same period of 1925. The number of parcels handled at Wellington this Christmas was very large indeed, there being 81,401, whereas only 75,852 passed through the hands of the postal authorities for the same period during the days of the previous year.