POST OFFICE REPORT.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5130, 1 September 1877, Page 2 (Supplement)

POST OFFICE REPORT.

The eighteenth annual report of the Post Office Department has been laid before Parliament.- It states that the business of the department has been largely extended during the year, and the operations of the several branches have been satisfactory. The postal revenue collected within the colony for the financial year ended 30th June ultimo was £86,547 14s, against £80,656 os. 9d. for the. previous year—an increase of £5891 13s. 3d. But the gross revenue may be stated at £102,474 10s. lid., as a sum of £15,926 10s. lid. for postages from the Imperial Post Office and certain of the Australian colonies was due at the close of the financial year, although not received into the Treasury. This amount has b«en treated as an asset of revenue. The expenditure for the. above period, after making provision for outstanding liabilities, was £140,236 4s. 7d., or, £4710 15s. sd. les3 than the sum voted for carrying on the several postal services. The saving has been mainly effectedunder the item of "Conveyance of mails by sea." - The letters increased 12'88 per cent., and newspapers 16'90 per cent. 81 post offices were established, 3 re-opened, and 8 closed during the year. Money order and savings bank business was extended to 6 ]iost offices, and an office of this class was abolished. 48 additional mail services were established, and the aggregate length of the services increased by 449 miles. The staff of the department has been increased by 4 clerks, 61 subpostmasters, 3 letter carriers, 3 messengers, and 1 shipping officer, making a total of 72 officers. 189 post offices have been inspected. The very large number of post offices, and the rapid extension of the money order and savings bank system, render more frequent inspection necessary. There are now 734 post offices in the colony, of which 131 are offices for the transaction of money order and savings bank business ; and it is intended that the minor offices shall be inspected at least once a year, while the chief offices and post offices at which money order and savings bank business is carried on shall be visited more frequently and at irregular intervals. The arrangements necessary for giving effect to this increased inspection will be carried out without delay. The post-card system was introduced during the year, and as an event in the history of postal progress in the colony, the fact is one deserving of more than ordinary notice. Postcards were first issued on the Ist November last, and on the 31st December 92,500 were sold to the public —a number which largely exceeded the most favorable estimate. The introduction of post-cards would appear to have been appreciated by the public, by whom the cards are extensively used, both for general and special purposes. No complaints have been made against the charge of a penny for each card ; and,-contrary to anticipation, net a single card lias been detained for having obscene or libellous-writing. There is reason to believe, however, that a few post-cards, with writing of an offensive character, have been posted and delivered, to the addressees. There seems no good or sufficient reason for supposing that post-cards will be extensively' used as,a medium for transmitting obscene or libellous communications;' The success which has attended the introduction of the po3t-card system has been very satisfactory. It is impossible, in the present' report, to state to what

extent the revenue may have been affected by the circulation of post-cards. It is believed, however, that the revenue has not Buffered ; and that when returns have been completed it will be found that the postal receipts have not in any way diminished through the introduction of the post-card system.' This assumption is based on the knowledge that the post-cards are to a large extent used for purposes which were formerly effected by agencies other than that of the post office. It may be Btated that "the New Zealand post-card is a colonial production, having been manufactured in the Government printing office. The expense in connection with the introduction of post-cards, inclusive of the cost of producing 1,002,500 cards, is estimated at £lB4 3s. 6d.

The United States postal authorities have again been communicated with, in the. hope that they may consent to the establishing of a system for the exchange of money orders. The negotiations for effecting a modification in the San Francisco service only await the assent of the Parliament of New South Wales to the proposals. In the meantime, permission has been given the contractors to perform, temporarily, the service on the basis of the proposed modification, but on the understanding that, should the New South Wales Parliament refuse to adopt the altered service, the contractors shall be required to carry out their contract in its entirety. This concession was granted on the 4th May last, from which date the contractors have been paid a lesser subsidy of £72,500 per annum, instead of £89,950. As a matter of fact, however, the contractors, owing to unforeseen circumstances, had been permitted to perform the modified service since December last, on the understanding that they arranged for carrying out the coastal part of the service. The proposals to modify the service may be briefly summarised as follows : That the calling at Kandavau shall be abandoned, and the contractors relieved from performing the coastal service. The route to be: San Francisco, Auckland, and Sydney, and ; ■vice versa, this department undertaking at its own expense to collect and distribute the mails along the New Zealand coast. The time between San Francisco and Auckland and Sydney to be 550 hours and 674 hours respectively. The contractors to receive a gross subsidy of £72,500 a year, of which New South Wales agrees to pay £40,000, and New Zealand £32,500. To the payment made by this colony should be added the cost of the coastal service, at present 'carried out, for £SOOO per annum, which increases the colony's annual liability on account of the San Francisco service to £37,500, as against £44,975 paid when the coastal service was carried on by the contractors with the main boats.

On the 31st December last the Imperial Post Office terminated'all contracts providing for the carriage of mails from Great Britain to the United States, and did not make any permanent arrangements for the carriage of the colonial mails to .New York. This had the effect of disarranging the San Francisco; service, and otherwise had a prejudicial effect on the line. To what extent this was the case will be better understood when it is stated that it became the practice for the London Post Office to advertise the dates for closing mails by the San Francisco route from month to month only, while the • day of despatch was altered from Thursday to Saturday, in order to avoid forwarding the mails by slow steamers. This unsatisfactory state of things was forcibly brought under the notice of the Colonial Office and the London Post Office by the Agents-General for New South Wales and this colony, since which the original days of despatch have been reverted to, :and the mails forwarded by powerful steamers. Although it is now understood that the mails will be : despatched from London every, fourth Thursday by the fast steamers of the Inmaa line, no permanent provision has been made for a continuous service, the present despatch being still a month-to-month arrangement. A permanent service, it is hoped, may soon be arranged. The result of the proceedings against Messrs. Hall and Forbes and their sureties, for failure to carry out their contracts, has terminated in Mr. Cunningham, one of the sureties, agreeing to pay a sum of £IO,OOO as a full release to all. parties concerned, which lias been accepted.. . . V .-■'■■■ ...... In announcing in last report that a fresh, arrangement had been entered into with the Auckland Steam Packet Company ' for continuing the Fiji service, it was stated that " the new arrangement will be commenced on the return of the Star of the South from Fiji; and in the meantime the Llewellyn has been withdrawn from the service." It was subsequently ascertained, however, that the company were not prepared to carry out their undertaking, and they eventually abandoned the service. ; With the exception; of the fourweekly visits of the San Francisco mail steamers, Fiji has not had the advantage of direct steam communication with this colony during the past year. As the San Francisco steamers no longer call at Fiji, it is the intention of the department to endeavor to re-estab-lish a direct line of steamers, between this colony and the Fiji Islands for commercial purposes, and to arrange the service, as far as possible, to dovetail with the steamers of the San Francisco mail line, and thereby afford the inhabitants of the sister colony a ready, speedy, and direct means of communication with Europe and America. : The Government of Fiji will no doubt readily co-operate with the department in establishing direct steam communication between the two colonies.

There were issued during the year 80,255 money orders for £310,268 ss. lid., against 73,027 orders for £293,481 10s. 9d. in .1875 ; the increase being 7228 orders for £16,786 15s. 2d. The money orders paid were 59,807 for £232,334 6s. 2d., against 52,132 for £211,516 16s. 2d. in 1875; an increase of 7675 orders for £20,817 10s. The money orders issued iu New Zealand on the United Kingdom and the Australian colonies were, 24,507 for £98,179 45. : sd„ and 4628 orders, amounting to £21,041 10s. 2d., were received from those countries for payment in this colony. The orders issued in the colony on foreign offices, were accordingly in excess of the foreign orders received for payment by upwards of £77,000. In 1875 the excess was £31,000. Of the money orders issued in the colony during 1876, 11,636, amounting to £52,054 125., were transmitted by telegraph ; the -increase for the year being 1492 orders for £5020 9s. Bd. The gross revenue derived from the issue of money orders was £5261 19s. 2d., the increase for the year being £3lO 19s. lOd. The net revenue, after allowing for the amount due to the telegraph office for the transmission of money order telegrams, and the commission payable to foreign offices was £3957 19s. 2d.

There wera 11,255 savings bank accounts opened during the year, against 11,273 in 1875; and 9172 were closed, against 8681 in 1875. The number of accounts remaining open had increased to 26,117 from 24,334 at the close of 1875. The deposits received during the year were 57,295 for £664,134 12s. 6d., the average amount of each deposit being £ll lis. 9d. The withdrawals were 39,486, amounting to £696,281 7s. 4d., and of an average amount of £l7 12s. Bd. The amount to the credit of depositors on the 31st December was £723,910 17s. sd. The sum of £28,762 4s. 7d. has been credited to the accounts of depositors for the interest which accrued on their deposits during the year. The interest allowed on each account was at the rate of 4i per cent, for deposits not exceeding £2OO, and at 4 per cent, for deposits over that amount, but not exceeding £SOO. The total receipts of the money order and savings banks offices in the colony amounted to £1,008,427 2s. 2d., and the total payments to £928,615 13s. 6d. The total number of transactions was 236,843, of which 137,550 were receipts, and 99,293 payments.