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Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 246, 27 September 1884, Page 2

The report of the Post-office, which has now been printed and circulated, contains one or two items among what may be termed the “ curiosities ” of the Report which seem worthy of .reproduction. For instance, that mysterious department the dead-letter office received and deposed of no fewer than 96,797 letters during the year. Of these 69,452 were opened and returned to the writers; 8143 were returned unopened by the Chief Postmaster. The undermentioned articles of value were found enclosed in letters opened in the deadletter office, and returned to the senders where practicable : —l5B moneyorders for X'564 4s 8d ; 37 bank drafts /T 850 6s 4d ;86 cheques, 1 13s 6d two promissory notes, os 8d; stamps, /"y 4s 3d; bank-notes, /'165 ; gold, /"zj 10s; silver and copper, /3 14s 2jd ; —representing a total of j/3161 3s 7|d. In addition, one gold ring, one gold chain, one gold brooch, one gold cross, one pair of earrings set with jewels, one greenstone and gold brooch and earrings, one silver brooch, one gold horseshoe pin, one silver locket, one gold open-faced watch, one gold Geneva watch, one silver lever hunting watch, one silver hunting watch with chain, one nugget of gold, and six rubies were received at the dead letter office ; 1386 unclaimed registered letters were dealt with; 44 letters detained for postage were received, nine of which were subsequently forwarded ; 795 newspapers and 436 books and other articles without addresses were also received. Of these 97 were delivered, 87 letters were posted without addresses ; 23 letters with obscene and libellous addresses were intercepted; 143 letters were imperfectly and wrongly addressed; 13n letters were refused ; four letters were posted with previously used stamps. The report also contains some interesting information regarding the periodical literature of the Colony. It appears that 25 newspapers were registered during the year for transmission through the post, and altogether 167 newspapers have been registered at the General Post-office. Of these 47 are published daily, 12 tri-weekly, 23 twice weekly, 53 weekly, 1 fortnightly, and 31 monthly. Eleven magazines also were registered, and 156 of this class of publication have been admitted to the privilege of the magazine post since it was established.