The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-12-28 00:00:00

INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT THE
POST OFFICE.

The 24th report of the Postmaster-General on the Post
Office, being that for the financial year which ended March
31, 1878, has been issued as a Blue-book. We make the
following extracts therefrom
The number of road and railway latter-boxes was
increased during the year, by the erection of 595 new
boxes, to 11,319. Thus the accommodation provided
throughout the United Kingdom for the deposit of
correspondence in the post is rep/ esented by no less
than 25,082 receptaclee. In 1867 the number of
receptacles was 17,225, and before the establishment
of penny posta,e in 1840 only little more than 4,500.
The total number of letters, post-cards, book-
packets, newspapers, &c., whieh passed through the
post during the year was 1,477,828,200, being an in-
crease of 41 per cent, on the number in 1876. In
England and Wales the letters a,m,unted in Lumber
to 883,968 700, in Ireland to 74,248,200, and in Scot-
land to 99,515,300, or a proportion of 32 letters per
head of the population.

Comparatively few post-cards-s,llB,3oo—were
used in Ireland, whereas in England and Wales the
number sent amounted to 86,051,500. Altogether, the
total number of post-cards for the United Kingdom-
-102,237,300—5h0ws an increase of 10 per cent, on the
number sent in 1876.

Book packets, newspapers, and circulars show a
total for the United Kingdom of 317,858,600, or an
increase of 6.4 per cent, on the number sent in 1876.
Of this number, 255,924,000 were for England and
Wales. The number of newspapers alone is estimated
at 128,558,000.

The total number of letters sent during the year to
the returned letter offices, together with those returned
to the writers direct from the London district offices?
was 4,873,625. The proportion of letters sent to the
returned letter offices out of the whole number trans-
mitted was as 1 to 217. It was found possible to return
to the writers, or to re-issue to corrected addresses,
about nine-tenths of the whole number received.
Taking advantage of the information afforded by the
covers, the experiment has been tried of returning to
the senders, direct from the principal offices in the
London district, without passing through the returned
letter office, all letters, book packets, &c., which have
the sender's names and addresses stated upon them.
The experiment has worked satisfactorily ; and the
Postmaster-General points out that as it is desirable
that letters, &c,, which cannot be delivered to the
addresses should again reach the hands of the senders
without delay, the public would greatly assist the de-
partment in that aim by more generally printing their
names and addresses upon their uovers.
Nearly 28,500 letters were posted without addresses,
being an estimated increase of 2000, on the figures for
the preceding twelve months; 757 of these letters were
found to contain in the aggregate £214 12s. sd. in cash,
and bank-notes, and £9,088 lls. 11d, in bills of ex-
change, cheques, &c.
The number of newspapers detained for insufficient
postage shows a considerable increase, the number
being about 1,800 per month in excess of the figures
for the previous year; 42,856 postage stamps were
found loose in the diffeient post-offices, having, no
doubt, in many instances, been insecurely affixed to
the letters, &c., by the senders.
No fewer than 12,525 miscellaneous articles reached
the returned letter offices without covers or addresses.
The remark is made that, although in some cases the
covers may have become detached owing to exceptional
circumstances, yet the great majority of the cases are
attributable to the use of flimsy covers wholly unsuit-
able for the purpose.
During last Christmas and New Year's season, the
number of letters, &c., which passed through the in-
land branch of the General Post Office, in excess of
the ordinary correspondence, is estimated at 4,500,000.
A large portion of this additional matter reached the
chief office on Christmas morning. About 1,000 extra
bags had to be brought into use at Christmas, and
also on St. Valentine's Day 40 hand-carts were em-
ployed in Liverpool to facilitate the deliveries in 40 of
the busiest districts of that town ; a messenger in
each case propelling the hand-cart, while the letter-
carrier effected the delivery of the contents. It would
have been impossible in some cases for the letter
carriers to carry the weight of correspondence which
felllSo their share in the general distribution.
The average total weight of mails received daily at
the chief office, St. Martin's-le Grand, is 23 tots, and
Of m tile despatched 43 tons. On heavy mail days
tilose weights may be taken at 26 tons and 53 tons
respectively. The great disparity between the weight
of mails outwards and inwards is partly due; the
retort says, to the fact that London issues fir more
correspondence than it receives and partly to the cir-
cumstance that a large proportion of correspondence is
sent from the travelling post-office direct to the district
offices without passing through the chief office than is
received by the travelling post-offices from the district
offices.

On the occasion of thA wreck of the European, one
of the fleet of the Union Steamship Company in Decem-
ber lair, off Ushant, the mails from the Cape of Good
Hope were recovered, bu.t not without serious damage
through saturation with sea water. One of the regis•
tered htter bags from Cape Town, on being-opened in
tLe chief office in London, proved to contain several
large packets of diamonds, the addresses on which had
been destroyed by the action of the watcr, and about
71bs. weieht of loose diamonds, which had evidently
escaped from covers wholly or partially mutilated, and
found in pulp at the bottom of the bag. Every
possible endeavour was used by the officers of the de-
partment to discover the rightful owners of those
packets which were nearly intact, and with such
success, that they were all, with very little delay,
duly delivered. After very great trouble and much
correspondence' the whole of the persons for whom the
loose diamonds were intended were, it is believed,
ascertained. The diamonds were valued by an experi-
enced broker arid sold, the amount realized—viz.,
£19,01 0, being sufficient to satisfy the several claimants
to sueh an extent that not a single complaint was
heard.

The Pt Office conticues to be used as a means of
transmitting articles of almost every variety from one
part of the country to the other. The following
articles, among others, were observed during the year:
a dormouse, four white mice, two goldfinches, a lizard,
and a blind worm, all alive; cutlery, medicine, varnish.
ointments, perfumery, articles of dress, a stoat, a
squirrel, fish, leeches, frogs, beetles, caterpillars, and
vegetables. Many of these being prohibited articles
were sent to the Returned Letter Office. A snake,
about a yard in length, which had been committed to
the post for transmission in a box, was observed to be
at large on the floor of one of the night mail sorting
carriages on the London and North-Western Railway.
After a good deal of confusion and interruption to the
work, it was killed. A small box which reached the
Returned Letter Office in Liverpool was found, on
being opened, to contain eight living snakes. A cheque
for £9 15.. was found loose in a pillar letter-box in Bir-
mingham, but the owner, who was traced through the
bank, was unable to explain in any way how it had
got out of his possession. •

In reference to the delivery of letters, the report has
the following :
"Complaint having been made last year that certain
letters which ought to have reached a bookseller in a
country town had not been received, it was concluded,
after inquiry, that they had been duly delivered, but had
subsequently bebn withdrawn from under the street door.
which was furnished with a slit to receive letters, but
without a box to retain them. During recent alterations in
the shop, however, when it was necessary to remove the
flooring under the window, the discovery was made of 31
letters, six post cards, and three newspapers, whieh had
been carried thither by rats. The corners ot the letters,
&c., bearing the stamps were nibbled away, leaving no
doubt that the gum upon the labels was the inducement
to the theft. Several of the letters contained cheques and
money orders."

The following is one of the many curious applica-
tions addressed to the department by persons both
a thorns and abroad. It would appear from the ex-
traordinary letters received that in same quarters a
very vague notion exists as to the scope of postal
operations :

" Tennessee, Oct. 4, 1877 —Dear Sir,—l want you to do me
a kines to hand this to some good watch maker and tell him
to see if I can bye instrument to tell where gold or silver is
In the ground or if there is a instrument maid to did mettel
—gold or silver—that are in the ground. If it will attrack
it—A. instrument for that perPos—l understand there are
Butch a thing made. If so, be pleas tell me where I can by
one and what it will cost me—lt can be sent to New York to
where I can get it—l want to get a instrument to hunt
gold and silver—You will pleas w; Pe to me as I think if
there are stitch a thing maid I could get one in your country
send you a stamp."

The continued depression in trade during the year
was not without its effects upon the telegraph busi-
neas ; and, although the number of public messages
was larger than in the preceding 12 months, the in-
crease only t mounted to 445,640. On the other hand,
the interest attached to the progress of the war be-
tween Russia and Turkey and to the negotiations for
peace and consequent debates in Parliament led to a
large increase-25 per cent, in the amount of matter
transmitted on behalf of the Press. The Post Office
delivered upwards of 250 millions of words of news in
the course of the year to various newspapers, Clubs,
Exchanges, and news rooms in the United Kingdom,
Referring to the North of Scotland, the Postmaster.
General says :

The number of private wires leased from the de-
partment has been increased during the past year, and
on the 31st of March last the receipts from this class
of busintss amounted to upwards of £60,000.
The report gives several examples of errors in tele-
grams, which It says are sometimes to be traced to
failures of the must trifling kind. For instance, a
pleasure party telegraphing to seme friends stated
that they had " Arrived all right," tut the message
was rendered " We have arrived all tight.' In
another case, a poor person desiring to state that her
daughter was ill, wrote on her message, "Mary is
bad,' this was rendered, "Mary is dead."
The "lumber of additional offices opened tor savings.
bank buaineffs during 187 T was 220, of whibb 189 are

in England and Wales, 7 in Scotland, and 24 in
Ireland; the total number of offices open on the 31st
of December last being 5,668.
The total number of deposits made in 1877 was
3,267,851, and the number of withdrawals 1,252,965;
the total amount of the deposits being £9,166,738, and
of the withdrawals 28,083.991. The average valle of
the deposits, which rose from £2 164. Id. in 1875 to
£2 16s. 9.1. in 1876, fell azain to £2 16s. Id. last year;
as regards withdrawals, the average of which gradually
increased up till 1875, when it reached £6 1115 Bd., they
have slightly decreased in amount during the last two
}ears, the average for 1877 being £6 9s.
The total amount of interest allowed to depositors
Ailice the establishment of the Post-office savings banks
is £5.237 430. The number of ac3ounts open at the
end of 1877 was 1,791,240, as against 1,702 374, show-
ing an accession to the number of depositors during
the year of 88,866. The Postmaster-General closes
the subject of Post-office savings banks with the
following remarks :

"It is worthy of note that whre the increase In the num-
ber of deposits in 1877 over the number of deposits in 1876
was three times greater than the increase in the latter year
over 1875, the mcrease in the amount deposited in 1877 over
1870 was £14,110 less than the increase in 1870 over 1875.
This result is doubtless due chiefly to three causes—Viz, to
the depres,ed and unsettled state of trade preventing the
depositors from making their usual savings. to small de-
posits being made by children and others influenced by the
penny bank movement, and to the acoession of new de-
positors making deposits of small amounts, as a result of the
house to•house distribution of handbills on the subject of
Post-office savings banks mentioned in my last report."
The total number of officers in the service of the
Post Office Department on December 31 last was
45,506, being an increase of 482 on the figures for the
previous year. Of that number 11,473 are employed
exclusively on telegraph work. There are 13,763
postmasters, 1(1,000 clerks, and 21,000 letter-carriers,
sorters, and met.sengers. The staff employed in Lon-
don alone is 10,665, of which 5,800 are attached to
the chief offices in St. Martin's-le-Grand.