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MISCELLANEOUS. 1926. 1925. Letters and letter-cards posted without addresses .. .. .. .. 20,659 19,731 Letters imperfectly or insufficiently addressed ... . . . . .. 23,508 19,380 Letters intercepted on account of libellous addresses . . . . .. 304 42 Registered letters unclaimed .. .. .. .. .. .. 9,973 9,650 Newspapers received without addresses .. .. .. .. .. 6,454 5,221 Other articles received without addresses .. .. .. .. 4,893 4,070 Newspapers returned to publishers as undeliverable .. .. .. 39,085 43,685 Articles bearing previously used stamps .. .. .. . . .. 93 81 During 1926 there were dealt with in the Dead Letter Office 5,193 packets (other than parcels) the contents of which gave little or no indication of the senders' names or addresses. In the majority of these cases special effort on the part of the Dead Letter Office was successful in tracing either the senders or the addressees. Two hundred and eighty-six letters from overseas bearing insufficient or wrong addresses were specially dealt with, and a large proportion was delivered. During the year an auction of unclaimed packets and parcels was held, at which 162 bundles of miscellaneous articles were sold. The number of " special request " letters returned unopened to senders shows a satisfactory increase. If business people realized that a special request for return in the event of non-delivery, printed on an envelope, meant the quicker return of a letter, still more would avail themselves of the facility. PROHIBITED POSTAL PACKETS. During the year 1,338 letters addressed to persons or firms the transmission of correspondence for whom is prohibited under section 28 of the Post and Telegraph Act, 1908, were intercepted and forwarded to the Dead Letter Office. (In 1925 the number was 3,873.) The letters for the most part were addressed to agents of art unions or lotteries in other countries. Some were addressed to recognized " quack " doctors, while others were addressed to persons who deal in obscene books or pictures. The list of prohibited persons, which had become unwieldly, was purged during the year. The purging necessitated considerable correspondence with foreign countries. In some cases it was found that the prohibited persons had left their former addresses, or were out of business, or were deceased. Needless to say, before any name was removed from the list the Department had adequate evidence that removal was justified. REGISTER OF NEWSPAPERS AND MAGAZINES. Twenty-three newspapers were registered for transmission by post, and twenty-five were removed from the register. Three magazines were registered, and fourteen were removed from the register. The number of registered newspapers on the 31st March, 1927, was 298, and the number of registered magazines 326. POSTAGE-STAMPS. New postage-stamps of the denominations of 2s. and 3s. were issued on the 12th July, 1926, and a new Id. stamp was issued on the 15th November. The central figure of the design of each of the stamps is a bust in profile of His Majesty the King. His Majesty is portrayed in the 2s. and 3s. stamps in the uniform of an Admiral, and in the Id. stamp in the uniform of a Field-Marshal. The new stamps have also been issued overprinted as follows : 2s. and 35., " Samoa," November, 1926 ; 25., " Rarotonga," November, 1926; 25., " Niue," March, 1927 ; and Id., " Official," February, 1927. Letter-cards bearing the new Id. stamp were issued in January, 1927. Consequent upon the new issues, the following stamps were withdrawn during the year: Id. "Universal"; 2s. "Stamp Duty" overprinted "Rarotonga" and "Samoa"; 3s. "Stamp Duty " overprinted " Samoa." Similarly, the letter-card bearing the Id. " Universal " stamp is no longer on issue. DISCOUNT-STAMPS. The redemption of discount-stamps ceased on the 31st March, 1927. BRITISH EMPIRE REPLY COUPONS. As a result of a discussion at Stockholm in 1924 among the Imperial delegates to the Postal Union Congress, it was decided to issue an Imperial reply coupon for use within the Empire. During the year arrangements were made for the British Empire reply coupon to be placed on sale in the Dominion, but it was not until the 7th April, 1927, that the coupons were actually available for sale. They are sold at 2|d. each, and on being presented at any post-office in the Empire are exchanged for a stamp or stamps representing the postage on a single-rate letter to a destination within the Empire. International reply coupons have been in use for many years, but they are sold at 5d.. each. An International coupon may, of course, be redeemed in any country, whether British or not, for a postage-stamp or stamps representing the postage on a single-rate letter to any part of the world.