POSTAL AND TELEGRAPH RETURNS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2401, 20 September 1892, Page 3

POSTAL AND TELEGRAPH RETURNS.

Post Office Orders, Band drafts and notes, cheques, promissory notes, coin, and so on of a total value of £6512 18s 6d were found in letters opened in the Dead Letter Office of this colony during the past year. In addition, an aneroid barometer, a gold watch and chain, a silver watch and chain, two silver watches, 3 gold rings, and several other articles of jewellery, 1 half-pennyweight of gold, a pocket knife, a pair of spectacles, and a passage ticket from Wesport to Wellington were received. There were 896 unclaimed registered letters, 214 letters without addresses, 481 letters imperfectly addressed, and 21 letters posted with previously used stamps. One thousand two hundred and twenty-three newspapers and 515 books and other articles without addresses were received at the office, while twelve letters with libellous addresses were intercepted, and 4487 letters were refused by the people to whom they were addressed. The following figures will show what has been the effect of the reduction of the postage on letters for the United Kingdom from sixpence to twopence halfpenny. There were 566,790 letters posted in 1890, and the postage was £17,066; in 1891 544,742 letters were posted, but the amount paid was only £BI2B.

There has been an increase of over 7000 in the number of telegraph messages sent in New Zealand during the past year as compared with the number in 1890, 1,961,161. The Post Office report just issued contains the list of the articles of the Universal Postal Union, in which New Zealand was included in October last. New (South Wales is the only Australian colony which has not an intercolonial parcel post.