A.—4a

8

POST AND TELEGRAPH. Work performed for other Departments. —Early in December this Department undertook tho collection of accounts due to the various Departments of the Administration. The amount collected for the four months amounted to £3,853 14s. sd. This involved a lot of extra work, as the accounts collected were for small amounts. Stamps. —A now issue of stamps has been on sale since early in the year. The new stamps are of the following denominations: |d., Id., \\<\., 2d., 2|d., 3d., 4d., 5d., 6d., Bd., 9d., and Is. Savings-bank.— The Savings-bank Branch shows a steady increase of business. During the year 195 accounts were opened and 105 closed, leaving a total of 301 accounts, an increase of 90. Deposits amounted to £34,887 ss. 2d., and withdrawals to £28,253 12s. Id. The total amount (including interest) at credit of depositors is £29,448 Bs. 3d., of which sum £26,256 4s. 7d. is invested in New Zealand, leaving a working balance of £3,192 7s. Bd. in hand on the 31st March, 1922. Private Boxes. —The additional boxes erected last year have boon let with the exception of three, and it will be necessary to add further boxes in tho near future. The rents received amounted to £93 Bs. lid., as against £76 16s. 2d. collected the previous year. Telephones. —The fees amounted to £1,1.93 I.os. 9d., a small increase on last year's totals. The exchange board at present in use is very unsatisfactory, and it is hoped that a new one will be provided in the near future. Post Office. —Records of articles delivered are made only twice in the year, but it is estimated from a general average that the number of articles delivered in Samoa during the year was as follows : Letters and letter-cards, 96,556 ; other articles, 65,931 : total 162,487. Registered letters delivered numbered 2,288, and parcels 3,080. Letters and other articles posted showed a substantial increase on the previous year's totals: letters numbered 68,759 ; other articles, 17,838 : total 86,597. Registered articles posted, totalled 3,407, and parcels 1,425. Money-orders. —1,745 orders, for a total sum of £14,572 14s. 9d., were issued, the commission amounting to £120 4s. 7d. The paid orders numbered 178 and amounted to £919 18s. 7d. Postal Notes. —Sales in this branch amounted to £859 16s. 5d., and notes to the value of £40 14s. were paid. British postal orders amounting to £154 13s. 3d. were sold, and the payments amounted to £43 Is. RADIO-STATION. The working of the wireless station has been well maintained during the year Ist April, 1921, to 31st March, 1922, the working being interfered, with only on rare occasions when atmospheric conditions have been so severe as to make it impossible to work through them. The station has continued to give service as a relaying station to Tahiti, I.arotonga, Nukualofa, Tutuila, with Awanui, New Zealand. The plant, with the exception of the Leyden jar condensers, replacements for which are being given attention to, is in good order, and, beyond the usual maintenance work, has required no extraordinary attention. It has been gratifying to find that the bulk of the work can now be handled quite satisfactorily on the low-power transmitting-sot, thus doing away with the heavy battery charging which was necessary when the high-power plant had to be used daily. This has been mainly secured by arranging our schedules with other stations so that they are spread over the whole day, and traffic does not therefore bank up, but is disposed of evenly, and no strain is placed on the low-power plant. As a direct result of this it lias been possible to dispense with the second engineer's position, the work now being quite efficiently carried on by one engineer. Schedules of traffic, and revenue derived from same, covering the year, are attached.

Traffic handled by Apia-Radio, 1st April, 1921, to 31st March, 1922.

Forwarded. Received. Tram limits. Month. Messages. Words. Messages. Words. Messages. Words. .921—April .. May .. June . . July .. August September (letobcr November Deeember .922—lanuary February March 298 3,578 330 4,354 339 4,274 343 4,086 376 4,286 334 3,717 313 3,741 327 3,762 356 3,795 287 3,119 232 2,536 235 2,369 288 3,689 372 4,424 294 3,963 331 4,028 261 4,038 352 3,833 362 3,729 329 3,772 330 3,367 261 2,664 279 2,932 256 2,713 3,689 4,424 3,963 4,028 4,038 3,833 3,729 3,772 3,367 2,664 2,932 2,713 683 740 674 736 789 733 749 762 728 595 652 703 8,1.86 8,332 7,524 8,344 8,863 7,426 9,128 8,328 8,230 7,538 6,770 7,810 Totals 3,770 43,617 3,7.15 43,152 43,152 8,544 96,479 Amount earned by i .pia, £4,116 12s. lljd. 12s. J I i(l.