THE FINANCIAL STATEMENT

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9137, 9 July 1908, Page 3

THE FINANCIAL STATEMENT

POINTS AT A GLANCE.

On {March 31st last there were ,65& miles of telegraph line and 9,34 ; 4 miles of wire in the Dominion. Telegrams numbering 7,042,923 were sent last year by the people of the Dominion, an increase of 258 per cent, on the 1891 total. There are 23,981 telephone connections, producing a revenue of £116,852. The average number of letters posted per head of population is 84.48, or 86.46 including letter postcards. The amount invested by the public in Government 4 per cent, debentures through the medium of the Post Office was £120,975. Last year 7,652 letters were wrongly addressed; 1,966 letters and 21!) letter-cards were posted without aJdre.3339. In the Dead Letter Office 724 Post Office orders (£1,663), 60 bank drafts (£6,431), and 510 cheques (£4,734) were found in letters opened an.! returned to senders where practicable. New Zealand's proportion of the Pacific cable deficit of £54,923 12s 2d on the fifth year's working of the cabl-3 last year was £6,102 12s sd. . proportion of loss for 1908, £7,730. There are 1,039 miles of telephone line and 16,816 miles of wire in the Dominion. Last year 1,092,631 postal notes were sold, of a value of £347,300, a?ainst 981,641 (£314,053) for the previous year. The cost of management on the total amount at credit of PDst Office Savings Banks was 0.16 per cent., or f J per £100; cost of working 4.2 p?r transaction, or £19,000 for the year.

In the Department of Agriculture tha total votj is £149,033 (£136,041 expended last year). Amongst the items are: —Breeding of Angora goats £250, cultivation of phormium tenax £SOO. The total Education Department vo e is £856,842 (£840,658 was voted last year, and £821,424 expended). The principal items are grants to Education Boards for teachers' salaries, £444,000 (£438,899 expended last year),; School Journal, £2,000. Grants to' University Collages for specialisation, viz.—-Auck-land University College, Commerce, Mining, £2,000; Victoria College, Law and Science, £2,000; Canterbury College, Engineering, £2,000; Otago University, Mining, Medicine, Dental, and Veterinary Science, £2,300. Total vote secondary and higiier education. £58,955 (£54,120 expanded last year). Total vote manual and technical instruction, £49,420 (£44,76 5 expanded last year). Inquiry at Te Oranga Home, £285. The total of the Public Health Department's vote is £38,910 (£33,253 expended last year). Amongst the items are: Administration of Pure Fo:>.is and Drugs Act, 1907, £300; bicycles, £100; subsidy to Societies for the Promotion of the Health of Women and Children, £4OO. The vote under the head of mental hospitals, hospitals and charitable • aid, is £104,534 (£99,395 expended last year). The total of the State Forest vote is £30,201 (£25,831 expended laat year); State coal minps, £319,123 (£190,423 expended last year); scenery preservation, £9,275 (£5,484 expanded last year): Lands for ' account, £26,530 (£G,367 expended laat yaar); Maori' Lands Settlement expenses, £737 (£2,574 expended last year). The estimated sum required for old age pensions is £7,772, and the amount expended last year was £5,766.