The Evening Star THURSDAY, AUGUST 19, 1875.

Evening Star, Issue 3896, 19 August 1875, Page 2

The Evening Star THURSDAY, AUGUST 19, 1875.

The sixteenth annual report of the Post-office Department, laid before Parliament, contains statistics that will be interesting to our readers, as they tend to show the progress made in arranging means for internal and international intercommunication. The receipts during the year have been much in excess of the estimated revenue, and so great has been the increase of business that in Christchurch, Wellington, and some other places, the need of additional office accommodation has been much felt. The net cost to the Colony for mail services via San Francisco, Galle, and Singapore, for the year 1874, amounted to £18,042, and the Postmaster-General considers that, had not the Galle service been largely availed of, owing to irregularities in that by way of San Francisco, the cost would hare been mucli less. The number of post-offices in the Colony is 625, being an increase of 54 over the previous year. The three great Provinces—Otago, Canterbury, and Auckland—have the greatest numbers, having respectively 139, 119, and 127 } but, as Southland stands separate and has 30 offices, Otago really should have been set down 169. Wellington has 53, Hawkes Bay 39, and Nelson 26. These figures may be considered fairly to indicate the relative progress of the chief centres of commerce in the Colony. The number of officers employed is 735. In Dunedin, arrangements have been made for three daily deliveries in the most thickly populated parts of the town. The number of inland mail services during the year was 283, traversing 7,319 miles. Of these, the mails were conveyed as follows:—83 by coaches and mail carts, 137 on horseback, 13 on foot, 43 by water, and 10 by railway. The total number of miles travelled during the yearwas 1,443,988. The cost of the service was L25,2G3, or about 4.19 d per mile. It is expected that in the course of a few months there will be daily mail communication between Christchurch and Dunedin, The number of letters received during the year was 4,389,165, and 4,719,291 were despatched, showing an increase over 1873 of 1,142,471 —the numbers for that

year being: received, 4,221,977; despatched, 3,6^4,008. In 1874 the newspapers received numbered 3,872,668, and dispatched 2,434,024. The increase during the years was 1,037,497, the numbers for 1873 being: received, 2,963,170. ; despatched, 2,306,025. The cash receipts to the close of the financial year on June 30 were £72,037, but this included the sum of £1,345 contributed by non-contracting Colonies on account of the San Francisco mail service; that amount does not take in £2,422 due by Provincial Governments for postage or probable recoveries from the Imperial "Post-office to the estimated amount of £1,200. Could they have been included, the postal revenue would have reached £86,460. The assessed gross revenue for 1874 was £104,316, as against £94,707 for the previous year. That is, those amounts would have been realised had postage actually been paid on all correspondence. But official communications between departments of the General and Provincial Governments are what is termed “ franked,” and the extent of the correspondence may be judged of by the postage rate on Provincial Government account amounting to £2,422, and for the General Government £39,800. The number of registered letters transmitted in 1874 was 43,766, as against 38,474 during 1873. There was a large increase of work at the dead letter office during the year, 26,153 letters having been opened and returned to the owners, b,823 were returned unopened to other countries, 105 were re-issued, and 4,227 were destroyed. Other interesting particulars are given which shall be detailed in a future number.