F.—l.

Missing Letters. 1,909 inquiries for letters and 1,381 for other articles alleged to have been posted and not delivered were made during 1906. In 960 of the inquiries for letters and 825 for other articles —over onehalf the total number—the investigations by the Department resulted in the missing articles being traced or accounted for. These may be summarised as follows : — Number of Traced Gases. Letter?. Other Articles. Pound to have been 83 63 ... Missent. misdelivered, or otherwise delayed through fault of Post Office. 51 28 ... Delayed in delivery through fault of addressees. 44 28 ... Not posted. 33 43 ... Posted later than stated; forwarded by slower routes than letters of advice, &c. 101 100 ... Defectively or wrongly addressed. 107 53 ... Mislaid or lost after delivery. 51 46 ... Returned through Dead-letter Office as unclaimed, &c. 490 464 ... Delivered. Reason for inquiry not given, but probably in most cases omission by addressees to acknowledge receipt. 960 825 Money-orders. Twenty-six money-order offices were opened during the year—namely, Awarua Plains, Broken River, Cust, Exhibition (Christchurch), Fitzroy, Heathdale, Hoanga, Kohatu, Makirikiri, Mangaia, Ohakune, Oio, Patutahi, Petane (H. 8.), Port Fitzroy, Rangitata, Raupo, Runanga, Stoke, Taneatua, Taoroa, Taupiri, Tokomaru, Waikumete, Waiouru, and Whatatutu. Four offices were closed—namely, Miranda, Motupiko Railway, Oio, and Tiniroto. The number of offices open at the end of the year was 559, against 537 twelve months previously. 439,020 money-orders were issued for £1,686,231 Is. lid., as compared with 417,441 for £1,541,711 19s. lOd. in 1905, an increase of 21,579 in number and £144,519 2s. Id. in amount, 332,560 money-orders, amounting to £1,434,038 6s. 5d., were paid, as against 318,127 for £1,310,810 Is. 2d. during 1905, an increase of 14,433 orders and £123,228 ss. 3d. in amount. There were 68,194 telegraph money-orders issued for £261,488 3s. lid., as compared with 63,682 orders for £228,423 ss. 10d. in 1905, an increase of 4,512 in number and £33,064 18s. Id. in amount. 137,370 orders for £373,960 Bs. 7d. were issued on places beyond New Zealand, as against 130,047 orders for £352,326 6s. 6d. during 1905. 30,776 orders for £125,651 13s. were issued in places beyond New Zealand for payment in the colony, as compared with 30,007 orders for £120,087 2s. 3d. during the previous year. The commission received for money-orders amounted to £18,278 10s. 3d., as against £17,073 9s. 6d. received during 1905. A money-order exchange was established between New Zealand and Austria as from Ist January, 1907. Exchanges are in course of negotiation with France and Tahiti. Savings-bank. There were twenty-five offices opened during the year for the transaction of savings-bank business —namely, Broken River, Cust, Exhibition (Christchurch), Fitzroy, Heathdale, Hoanga, Kohatu, Makirikiri, Ohakune, Oio, Patutahi, Petane (H. 8.), Port Fitzroy, Putaruru, Rangitata, Raupo, Runanga, Stoke, Taneatua, Taoroa, Taupiri, Tokomaru, Waikumete, Waiouru, and Whatatutu. Five offices were closed —namely, Miranda, Motupiko Railway, Oio, Springfield Railway, and Tiniroto. There were 540 offices open at the end of 1906, as against 520 at the end of the previous year. 70,206 accounts were opened and 47,526 closed, the net gain on the year's working being 22,680 accounts. The number of depositors on the 31st December was 298,746, and the proportion of accounts per head of population was lin 3 - 04, as compared with lin 3-20 at the end of the previous year. The deposits numbered 593,764, representing £7,907,154 12s. 5d., an average of £13 6s. 4d. per transaction. The withdrawals numbered 386,536 for £6,907,103 17s. 7d., an average of £17 17s. sd. for each withdrawal. The net amount added by the depositors to their savings during the year was therefore £1,000,050 14s. 10d., plus £291,191 19s. Id. interest earned and credited, making a total of £1,291,242 13s. lid. The total amount at credit of depositors increased from £8,662,022 17s. Id. at the close of the previous year to £9,953,265 lis. on the 31st December last, representing a sum equal to £10 19s. Id. per head of the entire population and £33 6s. 4d. to each depositor. Last year the figures were £9 16s. 4d. and £31 7s. 6d. respectively. The interest credited to depositors since the Post-Office Savings-banks were established in 1867 now amounts to £3,457,420 19s. 7d. The cost of working the Savings-Bank amounted to 4'l6d. per transaction, or £17,000 for the year. The cost of management per cent, on the total amount at credit of depositors was o'l7 per cent., or 3s. sd. per £100

liite-F. 1,

XVII