The Sun.
London, England, 1861-11-22 00:00:00

THE POST OFFICE.

The seventh report of the Postmaster-General has been
published.
Last year the number of post-offices in the United King-
dom was increased by 29, making the whole present num-
ber 11,441. To these must be added 2,473 road letter-
boxes, 515 of which were put up last year. Thus the whole
number of public receptacles for letters is now nearly 14,000
as compared with little more than 4,500 before the esta-
blishment of penny postage.
In the metropolitan districts great improvements hare
been effected, which may b, thus sated-1. 'Within the
" town limits" an additional delivery of letters, with a col-
lection preceding it from receiving-offices and pillar-boxes,
causing upwards of 70,003 letters weekly to reach their
destination an hour earlier. 2. An acceleration of the
second delivery of the day, in connection with the altered
time of arrival of the French and Irish mails. 3. An acce-
leration of the deliveries generally, both in London and
the suburbs, with a provision for delivery at the large num-
ber of new houses built during the year, amounting to
about 7,500. 4. Longer time has been given in some of the
suburbs for posting letters for the provincial night mails.
5. The new building in Vere••street, erected for the chief
post-office in the western district, and similar new offices
in the south-western and north-eastern districts, have been
completed and brought into use.
It appears that, in maintaining the earlier time for com-
pleting the morning general post delivery in London, a diffi-
culty is experienced from the practice, still persisted in by
a portion of the public, of addressing letters to firms with-
out adding either the number of the house or even the name
of the street. More than 20,000 letters now arrive daily,
bearing only the name of an addressee, with the simple ad-
dition of " London"—a practice which, besides retarding
the sorting, not unfrequently causes delay in their delivery.
The marked success which has attended the establish-
ment of the postal district system in London having sug-
gested an extension of the system to some of the large pro-
vincial towns, it has been determined to apply it in the first
instance to Liverpool, and fur this the necessary arrange-
ments are in progress.
During the last year 33 places, most of them in North
Wales, were provided with day mails to and from the metro-
polis of ono or other of the three parts of the United King-
dom, and some of them with mails in both directions—this
mail being, in several instances, the third during the 24
hours. The acclerations have been numerous.
The new Irish postal service, the preparation for which
had spread over several years, was brought into operation
on the Ist October last. This measure, when punctually
performed, reduces the time of the journey between Lon-
don and Dublin to 111 hours. Besides tho acceleration of
the night mail in both directions, and the consequent ac-
celeration of all throughletters for places leaving day mails
from London and Dublin respectively, an important boon
has been conferred by the establishment, for the first time,
of mails leaving London and Dublin in the morning and
reaching those cities in time for the last evening deliveries,
as well as in time for the despatch of through letters in each
case by both the- English and Irish evening provincial mails
and by the continental mails.
The number of travelling post-offices for sorting letters
upon the railways has been increased. To show the extent
to which the sorting duty in these travelling offices is in
some instances carried, it may not be uninteresting to men-
tion that the night mail train from London to Perth starts
from Euston-square with a force of 112 clerks, sorters, and
guards, employed in three separate carriages ; these car-
riages being in addition to three vans or tenders, in which
are packed such of the various mail bags as it is not neces-
sary to open. When the arrival of a heavy colonial mail,
such as the Australian, throws a large mass of additional
work u: on the travelling post-office, the force on this line,
large as it is, is increased by four or five.
The distance over which mails are now conveyed within
the United Kingdom by railways, mail coaches, &c., steam
packets, boats, and foot messengers, is about 144,000 miles
per day, being about 4,000 more than at the end of
1859. The daily number of. miles taus travelled in the
United Kingdom may be thus stated :—Mails conveyed by
railways, 30,047 miles ; mails conveyed by mail coaches,
omibuses, mail-carts, &c., 32,297 miles ; mails conveyed on
foot, 66,991 miles; mails conveyed by packets and boats

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