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Stamps demonetized. From the Ist January, 1942, a number of stamps of New Zealand, Western Samoa, and the Cook Islands were demonetized. The stamps covered by the demonetization orders included New Zealand stamps of the King George V series, air-mail stamps of 1931 and 1934, Health, " Silver Jubilee," and other special stamps issued between 1932 and 1936, Stamp Duty stamps of Queen Victoria design, and certain early postage-due stamps and items of postal stationery : the Western Samoan stamps demonetized included the " Native hut " series of 1921 ; and both the Western Samoan and Cook Islands Orders included various overprinted or special stamps of designs included in the New Zealand demonetization Order. DEAD-LETTER OFFICE. As in the last war, it has been necessary to set up a special section of the Dead Letter Office to deal with undelivered correspondence addressed to members of the armed forces. During the year 122,000 letters were dealt with in the Army Correspondence Section, and of these it was possible to return to the senders 99-9 per cent. MONEY-ORDERS, POSTAL NOTES, AND BRITISH POSTAL ORDERS. Money-orders issued, postal notes sold, and British postal orders sold and paid during the year were as follows :— Value. Number. £ Money-orders 751,722 4,302,126 Postal notes .. .. .. ■■ •• 2,408,020 980,952 British postal orders sold .. .. .. 38,402 11,161 British postal orders paid .. .. .. 10,222 5,537 SAVINGS-BANK. Deposits lodged in the Post Office Savings-bank during the year amounted to £32,044,733 and the withdrawals to £25,376,744, an excess of deposits over withdrawals of £6,667,989. The amount at the credit of depositors at the end of the year was £71,445,382, the interest accruing to depositors being £1,820,604. WORK PERFORMED FOR OTHER DEPARTMENTS. The total sum handled by the Post Office during the year on behalf of other Departments was approximately £102,000,000, an increase of £7,000,000 on the previous year's figures. The amount collected by the Department under the Social Security Act amounted to £15,132,427. Military Allotment Warrants. The number of military allotment and dependants' allowance warrants paid by the Department during the year was 1,301,006. Registration of Motor-vehicles and Associated Work. At the 31st March, 1942, there were 34,701 licensed motor-vehicles in the Dominion. Compared with the previous year's figures, this represents, a decrease of 6,941, or 2-22 per cent. The number of motor-vehicles registered during the year was 11,978, a decrease of 3,578 compared with the registrations during the preceding twelve months. Notifications of change of ownership recorded totalled 82,120. The total amount of motor-registration fees collected was £614,392, an increase of £41,903 compared with the previous year. The premiums collected on behalf of the thirty-seven insurance companies authorized to underwrite business in terms of the Motor-vehicles Insurance (Third-party Risks) Act, 1928, totalled £490,176, an increase of £37,645 compared with the amount collected during the preceding twelve months. On this occasion the motor-registration fees and insurance premiums collected covered a period of thirteen months. Mileage-tax was collected in respect of 794 vehicles, as compared with 493 vehicles during the preceding year. The gross amount of mileage-tax collected was £32,604, compared with £30,025 for the preceding twelve months. There were 62,869 claims foe refund of duty on motor-spirits, and the total amount of duty refunded was £316,085. TELEGRAPH SERVICES. TELEGRAPH TRAFFIC. Compared with the previous year the number of telegrams increased by 361,234 (7-27 per cent.) and the revenue by £23,898 (6-77 per cent.). CONCESSION-RATE CABLEGRAMS TO AND FROM MEMBERS OF ARMED FORCES. The concession-rate service for cablegrams to and from members of the Army and Air Force abroad has been replaced by a " Standard-text " service at a flat-rate charge of 2s. 6d. a message and extended to include messages addressed to naval personnel and to messages forwarded by members of the British Merchant Navv. The privilege afforded next-of-kin in regard to communicating with naval personnel is now available to next-of-kin of British Merchant Navy personnel. FREE TELEGRAPH FACILITIES FOR INVALIDED MEMBERS OF THE ARMED FORCES., For communicating on arrival with their relatives and friends, members of the armed forces returning home on hospital ships are each granted the facility of sending two free telegrams.

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