I

1889. NEW ZEALAND.

POST OFFICE AND TELEGRAPH DEPARTMENT (REPORT OF THE) FOR THE YEAR 1888.

Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly by Command of His Excellency.

My Loed, — General Post Office, Wellington, Ist August, 1889. I have the honour to submit to your Excellency the report on the Postal and Telegraph Department for the year 1888, with the usual statement of revenue and expenditure to the 31st of March last. I have the honour to be Your Lordship's obedient servant, H. A. Atkinson, Postmaster-General and Electric Telegraph Commissioner. His Excellency the Governor of New Zealand. EEPOET. The business of the department shows a satisfactory increase, and with the return of prosperity the results for the ensuing year should be even more favourable. The revenue and expenditure for the financial year ended the 31st March, 1889, are given in the following statement: — Bevenue. £ s. d. Expendituee. £ s. d. Stamps used for postage (estimated) .. 160,000 0 0 Salaries .. .. .. .. 125,014 10 0 Money-order commission collected in the Conveyance of mails by sea .. .. 64,102 15 1 colony .. .. .. .. 8,369 810 Conveyance of inland mails .. .. 24,572 6 3 Money-order commission received from Conveyance of mails by railway .. 274 0 11 foreign countries .. .. .. 756 8 1 Money-order commission credited to Private box and bag fees .. .. 4,085 0 0 foreign countries .. .. .. 1,203 17 8 Postage from foreign offices .. .. 27,517 210 Maintenance and repairs to telegraphMiscellaneous receipts (postal).. .. 13,624 011 lines, and miscellaneous .. .. 44,872 1 2 Ordinary and Press telegrams .. .. 85,272 0 9 Cable subsidies and repairs to cable .. 1,345 2 2 Telephone exchanges .. .. .. 17,613 4 0 — Miscellaneous receipts (telegraph) .. 2, 603 2 9 261,384 13 3 Balance of revenue over expenditure .. 58,455 14 11 £319,840 8 2 £319,840 8 2 The revenue increased by the sum of £8,231 9s. 2d., or 2-64 per cent., while the expenditure decreased £9,250 17s. 7d., or 3-42 per cent. The balance of revenue over expenditure for the year was £58,455 14s. lid. The receipts from postage were estimated at £160,000 —an increase of £3,000 ; but a calculation made at the beginning of this year, based on what was believed to be reliable data, showed that the postages were considerably in excess of the sum estimated. It should be explained that, since the introduction of interchangeable duty- and postage-stamps, it has not been possible to do more than estimate the receipts from postage. Foreign money-order commission increased by £220 15s. 3d., and miscellaneous postal receipts by £11,230 6s. lid. The amount of money-order commission collected in the colony was £137 19s. lid. less than in 1887-88, and there was also a decrease of £7,989 11s. od. in the foreign postage, and of £773 2s. 4d. in miscellaneous telegraph receipts. Of the expenditure, there was a decrease of £5,081 4s. lid. on account of salaries; for conveyance of mails by sea, £2,516 15s. 9d.; conveyance of inland mails, £2,550 lls. 3d.; and. carriage of mails by railway (special trains), £531 4s. 4d. The sum expended on maintenance was £501 19s. 9d. more than the previous year. The estimated value of the official free correspondence was £75,087 Bs. 7d., and the value of Government telegrams, for which no payment was received, was £23,164 13s. lid., a total of £98,252 2s. 6d., which, added to the cash receipts of £319,840 Bs. 2d., gave £418,092 10s. Bd. as the value of the postal and telegraph business for the year. As the expenditure was £261,384 13s. 3d., there was therefore a balance of £156,707 17s. sd. in favour of the department. I—F. 1.