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STAMP-VENDING MACHINES. The year was a record one in regard to the issue of stamp-vending machines, 110 less than thirty-eight new machines being brought into use at various offices. The machines are very popular with the public, affording, as they do, an opportunity of purchasing stamps at any hour of the day or night. People nowadays are not prevented from posting a letter through inability to obtain a postage-stamp on account of the post-office being closed. The machines have been the subject of favourable comment on the part of visitors from overseas. CUSTOMS PARCELS. The following table shows the declared value of goods received by parcel-post from places abroad and the Customs duty thereon ; also the declared value of goods despatched by parcel-post to places abroad. The figures for the years 1926 and 1925 are shown in each case. 1926. 1925. £ s. d. £ s. d. Declared value of received parcels .. 1,633,765 0 0 1,492,300 0 0 Customs duty .. .. .. 351,299 10 0 311,055 19 7 Declared value of forwarded parcels .. 97,324 0 0 76,980 0 0 POSTAL NOTES. The popularity of the method of remitting small sums to places within the Dominion by means of postal notes is ever increasing. Postal-note business again shows a decided increase, the sales for the year ended 31st March, 1927, being 3,329,638, of a total value of £987,688, an increase over the previous year of 288,916 in number and of £64,815 in value. The commission totalled. £22,417 10s. Bd., an increase of £1,663 7s. 4d. on that earned in the year 1925-26. BRITISH POSTAL ORDERS. The sale of British postal orders also shows a marked increase : 142,669 orders, of a value of £82,053 9s. 5d., were sold, as against 136,763 orders, of a value of £78,031, sold during the previous year. The number of orders paid was 33,610, of a value of £19,873, as against 30,248, of a value of £17,666, paid during the previous year. TELEGRAPH AND TOLL SERVICES. TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE ARRANGEMENTS IN CONNECTION WITH THE VISIT OF THEIR ROYAL HIGHNESSES THE DUKE AND DUCHESS OF YORK. Very complete postal, telegraph, and telephone arrangements were made during the visit of Their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of York. The privilege of free departmental facilities was afforded Their Royal Highnesses and the principal members of their entourage. The hours of attendance were extended at many offices, and special telephone connections were installed for use during the visit of the Royal party. When it was decided that the Duchess should abandon the West Coast tour and remain at Nelson, arrangements were made to install a telephone in Her Royal Highness's rooms for communication with the Duke at the various stopping-places between Nelson and Christchurch. At Christchurch further special arrangements were made for communication between Their Royal Highnesses, both while the Duchess was at Nelson and while she was at Wellington. Again at Dunedin, similar arrangements were made. As there is no special telephone circuit between Nelson and the West Coast or between Nelson and Christchurch, it was necessary to improvise circuits by the use of telegraph-wires. It is pleasing to record that His Royal Highness expressed appreciation of the arrangements. As is usual on the occasion of such important visits, a large amount of telegraph traffic resulted from the presence of numerous overseas Press correspondents, and also from an extraordinary amount of Press traffic within the Dominion. This necessitated the provision of special telegraphic apparatus and extra staff at places visited by the party. At the conclusion of the tour His Royal Highness's Private Secretary, as well as prominent journalists from abroad, expressed their entire satisfaction with the arrangements made and with the efficient work of officers in dealing with the unusual volume of traffic. INTERNATIONAL TELEGRAPH CONFERENCE. The International Telegraph Conference was held at Paris in September and October, 1925. The Dominion's representative was Captain T. E. Donne, late of the High Commissioner's Office, London. Amendments made to the telegraph service regulations by the Conference came into force from the Ist November, 1926. The alteration causing most concern to the commercial public was the restriction on the use of figures, numbers, and commercial expressions in cheap-rate messages to one-third of the chargeable number of words in the text. When the service of deferred messages was
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