F.—l

VII

bank-notes in a burnt condition were found near the Parnell Bridge, Auckland, on the 18th November, 1907, by two railway employees, who each received a reward of £2 from this Department. A man who sent a telegram on the 6th May, 1907, making untruthful allegations and signed it with a fictitious name was sentenced at Stratford to four months' imprisonment with hard labour. A man at Palmerston North was charged on 11th June, 1907, with having forged a Post Office order. He was found guilty, and sentenced to two years' imprisonment with hard labour. An ex-telegraph message-boy was found guilty at Auckland of forging, in September, 1907, a telegraphic money-order for £18, and sentenced on the 9th December to six months' imprisonment. A person was convicted of having wrongfully obtained possession, on the 16th September, 1907, of a letter intended for another person of the same name, and of having cashed a money-order for £5 55., which it contained. The offender was admitted to probation. A postal cadet confessed to stealing a letter containing £4 in notes posted at Alexandra South on the Bth October, 1907. He was convicted, and admitted to probation for twelve months. On the 29th October, 1907, the Featherston-to-Wellington mail-bag, containing twenty-six letters and two newspapers, was missed on arrival of the train in Wellington. Two letters, both unregistered, covered remittances of £61 and £360 odd, respectively. The contents were unnegotiable. Search was made for the bag, and the matter placed in the hands of the police, but without result. A letter-carrier in the Chief Post-office, Wellington, was arrested on the 15th November, 1907, on a charge of theft of a postal packet of jewellery, valued at £3. He was sentenced to eighteen months' imprisonment with hard labour. A person was charged at Dunedin on the Ist December, 1907, with having forged and uttered, at Wellington, the name of a depositor to two Post-Office Savings-Bank withdrawal receipts for £22 10s. and £13 respectively. He was sentenced to imprisonment for twelve months, with hard labour. Another person was sentenced at the September Supreme Court sitting, Christchurch, to eighteen months' imprisonment for forging and uttering a Post-Office Savings-Bank withdrawal slip for £15 10s. Between the 10th December, 1907, and the 10th February, 1908, report was made of the loss of three letters addressed to banks in Blenheim, containing £8 in bank-notes and several cheques. The theft was admitted by a cadet in the Blenheim Post-office. At Taihape on the 18th January, 1908, a man pleaded guilty to obtaining by means of a false telegram from Taihape a registered packet from the Postmaster, Utiku, on 23rd December, 1907, and was fined £10. The schoolhouse at Croydon Bush, which is also the post-office, was broken into by a schoolboy, on the 16th February, 1908, and two letters awaiting delivery were tampered with. The post and telephone office at Whakarewarewa was broken into on the night of the 24th February, 1908, and £3 17s.' Bd. stolen ; and again between Saturday night and Monday morning, 7th and 9th March, 1908, when 13s. was taken. On the 7th March, 1908, a mail-bag from Horeke to Rawene was lost in transit. It was recovered from a Maori several days later, with the contents torn into small pieces. The matter was placed in the hands of the police, who were, however, unable to ascertain definitely how the mail was lost. A person was charged with having on the 18th April, 1908, at Palmerston North, forged a PostOffice Savings-Bank withdrawal receipt, and was sentenced by the Supreme Court to six months' imprisonment. On the 4th May, 1908, a person who received a registered letter containing £1, but wherein the sender stated he was enclosing £2, alleged that the envelope had been tampered with while in the custody of the Post Office. Investigation showed that only £1 was enclosed by the sender, and that the envelope had not been tampered with in the Post Office. On the 18th May, 1908, a young man was sentenced at the Supreme Court, Wellington, to two years' imprisonment for having on the 14th April forged the name of a person to a telegram asking for money, and having thereby obtained £4. The safe at the Otira Railway-station was blown open on the night of the 27th May, 1908, and £101 stolen. Of this amount, £94 ss. was Post Office funds, consisting of £64 ss. in coin and £30 in cheques. Entrance was effected by a window, and mail-bags and moss were used to deaden the sound of the explosion. In another case a firm complained of the non-receipt of a number of valuable letters. Later, the theft of the letters was admitted by an employee of the firm. Casualties. A gas-explosion occurred in the strong-room of the Auckland Post-office on the 7th September, 1907, resulting in injuries to three officers, and the wrecking of the letter-carriers' branch. The injured officers recovered. The Department defrayed medical and other expenses of the officers. A departmental inquiry showed the explosion to have been caused by a defective piece of piping. Arrangements have been made which will obviate the necessity for the use of gas in the strong-room of any post-office in the Dominion. The Department was fortunate in suffering no material loss by the fire which partially destroyed the Parliament Buildings on the morning of the 11th December. Shortly after the outbreak, official documents, books, and furniture we're safely removed from the Postmaster-General's Office and the Cabinet-room. A fire broke out at the Auckland Telegraph-office on the morning of 21st May, 1908. The fire was discovered in a lavatory adjoining the despatch-room by the telephone-exchange clerk coming off