F.—l.

i ' i,.ossification. Classification Regulations 11 and 12 provide for a minimum payment of £130 per annum to married employees. An officer in receipt of a salary between £130 and £150 al the time of Ins marriage receives an additional £10 per annum until his salary reaches £150. Since the 14th May, 1908, the date of the regulations, 41 officers have qualified for the special payment by marrying, while 189 officers who had married before the introduction of the regulations have also participated in the allowance. Classification Regulation 14, (_,) governing t lie admission of women to the Department, was amended on the 29th January, 1909, to permit of the appointment of assistants and counterwomen at any age not less than twenty years or more than forty-five years. Departmental Classes. Departmental classes have been established at Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, and Wellington, in order that officers of the Department may be given every facility for qualifying for passes in the Sixth Standard and the Civil Service Junior and Senior Examinations, and for the purpose of imparting instruction in technical subjects with a view to assisting officers to pass the departmental technical examinations. The various classes are being well attended, and, it is hoped, will prove of benefit to officers. Appeal Board. The departmental Appeal Board sat from the 9th to the 14th April, 1908. The main feature of the appeals was the claiming by officers of additional seniority for service during past years. Ten appeals from nine officers were considered : in one case the Board decided that it had no jurisdiction ; in three cases the appeals were not sustained, and in the remaining six the Board made various recommendations. Three appeals were referred back to the Board, as the acts appealed against occurred at a period exceeding fifteen months before the respective dates of the appeals. A further meeting of the Board was held on the 19th September, 1908, when the Board confirmed its former decisions. In five cases the recommendations of the Board were carried out as far as practicable. During the year Mr. F. G. B. Waldegrave, Under-Secretary for Justice, resigned his position as Chairman of the Board, and Mr. J. W. Poynton, Public Trustee, was appointed to the vacancy. Messrs. Lewis Anderson and W. R. Thompson were elected to the Board unopposed on the 13th January, 1909, as Postal and Telegraph representatives, respectively, for the ensuing two years. Superannuation. Messrs. H. A. R. Huggins, Assistant Controller of Money-orders and Savings-banks and Assistant Accountant, and W. McNickle, Postmaster, Bull's, were elected to the Public Service Superannuation Board on the 6th July, 1908, as the representatives of contributors from the Post and Telegraph Department. By Order in Council published on the 12th November, 1908, telegraph message-boys were exempted from the provisions of Part II of " The Public Service Classification and Superannuation Amendment Act, 1908." Post Office. Eighty-eight post-offices were established (of these, 9 were reopened offices) and 19 closed. The number of post-offices open at the end of the year was 2,133. The names of 19 offices were changed to meet altered circumstances, or to agree more nearly with local designations. The Post Office receipts for the year amounted to £544,642 os. 2Jd., an increase of 13-85 per cent. The expenditure was £413,002 10s. 4d., an increase of 17-52 per cent. The balance of postal revenue over expenditure was £131,639 9s. 10|d. The number of articles delivered in the Dominion, including those received from places outside, during the year 1908, as compared with the number in 1907, was as under:— 1908. 1907. Increase. Letters and letter-cards .. 89,089,871 80,218,229 8.871,642 Post-cards .. .. .. 7,643,831 6,457,750 1,186,081 Other articles .. .. 47,420,009 42,408,899 5.011,110 Totals .. .. 144,153,711 129,084,878 15,068,833 Parcels ... .. .. 930,267 776,528 153,739 The letters and letter-cards increased 11-06, post-cards 18-37, other articles 11-82, and parcels 19-80 per cent. In 1907 letters increased 8-01, letter-cards 7-84, post-cards 16-04, newspapers 717, other printed matter and pattern-packets decreased 0-47, and panels increased 81-57 per cent. The average number of letters and letter-cards posted per head of population was estimated to be 91-37. The average in 1907 was 86-46. The statistics published by the Universal Postal Union show that New Zealand exceeds all other countries in the number of letters and post-cards handled, with 97-1 per head of population ; other countries having a high percentage are: Victoria, 929; Western Australia, 92 - 6; United States of America, 89 - 2, New South Wales, 87-5; Switzerland, 84 - 8; Tasmania, 80"1 ; Great Britain, 675.

IV