INCREASES IN POSTAL BUSINESS

Shannon News, 23 March 1928, Page 2

INCREASES IN POSTAL BUSINESS

Figures showing great increases in postal business and revenue were quoted by Mr H. H. Brown, of the Post and Telegraph Officers’ "'As-' sociation, at the district reunion in Levin on Saturday night. He stated that in the year 1926-27 the total value of the transactions dealt with by the Department was £157,600,000. The receipts for that year were £3,220,666, and the outgoings £2,346,274, leaving a surplus of £874,392 —the largest ever produced. It was necessary under recent legislation for the Department to produce a balance, sheet, and, after allowing for depreciation and interest, the surplus had been whittled down to £15,281. Very few of the workers in the Department knew the amount of capital invested in the Department, and his investigations had not revealed much. Mr Brown went on to make some comparisons with the pre-Avar period. He stated that in 1914 the revenue was £1,270,000, and in 1926 it was. £3,100,000. The expenditure in the two respective years was £1,173,000, and £2,409,000. The salaries of classified officers were £648,000 in 1914, and £1,444,000 in 1926, and the staff had increased from 5375 to 17,880. The revenue increase in. the Department was 144 per cent., while the increase of expenditure was 105 per cent., and the value of work handled by the Department had risen by 212 per cent. The increase of staff was 47 per cent. • In 1914 the proportion of salaries to re- > venue was 51 per cent., and in 1926 it was .46 per cent. ;