LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 285, 30 November 1881, Page 4

LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS.

Some interesting statistics have recently been published concerning the intercommunication of the various parts of the -world in the matter of letters and telegrams. In the year 1865 the number of letters sent through the post all over the world, was estimated at 2,300 millions. The available data for 1877 &bow that the postal correspondence has risen to over 4,020 millions, ■which gives an average of 11 million letters per clay, or 127 per second. Europe contributed 3,036 million letters to this enormous mass of correspondence, America about 760 millions, Asia 150 millions, Africa 25 millions «"<?.. A'lcirnHn, about 50 millions. Assuming that the population of the globe was between 1,300 and 1,400 millions, this would give an average of three letters per head to the entire human race. The length of telegraph lines, both by sea and land, must be at least 700,000 kilometres (437,500 miles), not reckoning the double, treble, &c, lines. There were 38,000 telegraph stations, and the number of messages may be set down for the year atbetveen 110 and 111 millions, being an average of over 305,000 messages per day, 12,671 per hour, and nearly 212 per minute. These quantities are ncreasing daily. — "Iron."