F.—l.

1941. NEW ZEALAND.

POST AND TELEGRAPH DEPARTMENT (REPORT OF THE) FOR THE YEAR 1940-41.

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

To His Excellency Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Cyril Louis Norton Newall, G.C.8., 0.M., G.C.M.G., C.8.E., A.M. May it please Your Excellency,— I have the honour to submit to Your Excellency, with the following comment, the report of the Post and Telegraph Department for the year ended on the 31st March, 1941 RECEIPTS AND PAYMENTS. The revenue collected during the year, which amounted to £5,106,193, exceeded that for the previous year by £312,502. Payments for the year in respect of working-expenses (including interest on capital liability amounting to £665,000) totalled £4,338,902. The excess of receipts over payments was £767,291. POST OFFICE SAVINGS-BANK. Post Office Savings-bank deposits were £28,607,222, compared with £25,151,287 during the previous year, an increase of £3,455,935. Interest credited to depositors amounted to £1,666,709. The withdrawals totalled £25,319,146, compared with £29,462,838 in the preceding year, a decrease of £4,143,692. The amount at credit of depositors at the 31st March was £62,956,787, which is £4,954,785 in excess of the balance at the end of last year. The number of accounts open at the 31st March was 992,792, which is 32,227 in excess of the total recorded at the end of 1939-40. The average amount at the credit of depositors on the 31st March was £63 Bs. 3d., compared with £60 7s. Bd. on the same date in the previous year. STAFF. Notwithstanding the departure of an ever-increasing number of officers for service with the armed forces, I think it can be said that the standard of the service given to the public during the year was, in the circumstances, creditably high. For this two factors were mainly responsible—the expedients and innovations adopted by the Administration in meeting the difficulties of the staffing situation, and the wholehearted manner in which officers accommodated themselves to the changed conditions. Without that valuable co-operation from officers as a whole, it would not have been possible to achieve with a heavily-depleted staff handling an increasing volume of work—much of it occasioned by the war—anything like the degree of success which it is my pleasure to record. The measures adopted will go a long way towards tiding the Department over the war period and at the same time safeguard the interests of officers on war service. Prominent among these measures is the gradual extension of the arrangement under which women specially engaged for the period of the war are being employed successfully on work that would normally be performed by men. Good results are expected also from the adoption of a scheme under which junior officers will be given an intensive course of training in various phases of departmental activity. The scheme has already been introduced in a modified form ; it will be extended, as soon as conditions permit, until the comprehensive system of training that is envisaged is in full operation.

3