THE POSTAL REPORT.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2295, 14 September 1870, Page 2

THE POSTAL REPORT.

We take the following extracts from the eleventh report of the Postal Service of New Zealand. Under the head “departmental,” we learn that—

During the year twenty-four new offices have been opened, and six offices have been closed ; making a total of 413 offices opened at the end cf 1869, of whicli nine were chief offices, twenty offices of the second class, and 384 sub offices

The scale of postage on inland letters, and letters addressed to the United Kingdom, or to any British colony, has been altered from a progression by ore ounce and the charge for an ounce to a progression by half an ounce and the charge for ha'f an ounce. By this alteration, a letter over loz , and not exceeding 1 ioz. in weight, is liable to three rates of postage only, instead of four, as was the case under the old scale ; and, in the game way, a letter weighing over 2oz , and not exceeding 2Joz.. is liable to live rates only, instead of six.

The previous nvnimum rate of 4d on book packets and pattern parcels, when not exceeding 4oz, has been reduced to Id when the packet does not exceed loz , and to 2d when above loz and not exceeding 2oz The fee for late letters Ims been altered to a single rate of postage on each letter; the uniform fee of 6d having been found too high for late letters from one part of the colony to another.

Alterations have also been male in the charges for private boxes. To those who wished to have a box for a short period only, the charge of L2 for the first year was considered too high ; and it has been reduced to 10s for three months, and LI for six months, the charge for a longer period remaining as before. Mail services have been established in several parts of the colony which had previously been without such aCcommodaliipn; and some of the previously established services have been extended and improved. The following figures show the total number of letters and of newspapers despatched and received during 1869, and a comparison with the numbers despatched and received during 1868

Letters—Despatched ...3,374,060 2.603,077 „ Received ...2,642,535 2,374,122 Newspapers— Desptch. 1,486,255 1,376.316 „ Received ..2,076,892 1,907,369

Thus, during 1869, there were 37,466 more letters passed through the Post Office than there were during, 1868 ; for w r hile the despatched letters show a decrease of 228,947 on the year, there is an increase of 268,413 on those received. As to newspapers, the number dealt with by the department during 1860 was considerably over a quarter of a million in excess of that of 1861 ; the newspapers despatched having increased by 109,909, and those receive ! by 169,523, the total increase being 279,432 The decrease in dead letters is steady ; there is also a falling off in registered let ters ; but to counteract this there has been an increased issue of money orders. The issues on the United Kingdom amounted to 139,939 8s 6d, white the issue on Foreign Governments remains about the same. The total issues during the year amounted to L 75,833 18s 4d, against L 67.536 12s 6d during 1868. A marked increase is noticed in the business of the Post Office Savings Bank Branch. The increase in the transactions c.f the bank this year over the previous one is 7046. The number of new accounts opened was 3839, as against 3282 in 1868. Altogether we see that the affairs of the Post Office are in a satisfactory position.