Morning journal and courier., 1883-09-10
THE NATIONAL CAPITAL

The Mails in Great Rrttatn-An Interest ing Review Cleaned From the Post masters Report.
 WASHINGTON, Sept. 9.-The last annual re port of Mr.. Henry Fawcett, postmaster general of Great Britain and Ireland, for the fiscal year ending March 31, 1883, which was
 completed and submitted on the 14th of last
 July, has just reached the PostofGce depart
 ment here. The report contained much that
 Is interesting concerning the growth, exten- sion and operations of the different branches I of this important service in Great Britain ! during the last fiscal year. MT. Fawcett says at the outset that the business of the ds- \ partment continues to manifest satisfactory progress. The gross revenue of all branches of the department was e9, ,413, SIP and the l total expenditure e6, 1852, ,O64, leaving net revenue of e3, ,O61, 74S, which is e38, 727 less I than the net revenue of the preceding year. The estimated number of letters delivered in 1 the United Kingdom during tte year was 2S0, ,Gs6, 200, an increase of ? per cent. of postal cards IA, ,o16, POO, an increase of 3 per. cent. and of newspapers 40, ,682, ,000,
 being slightly less than last year. The de- crease in the number of newspapers passing through the mails is attributed to increased facilities offered by the railway companies for sending newspapers as parcels. It IS estimated that the average number of letters per head of the population WAS England and Wales 40' in Scotland 30, Ireland 16, against 21 in the United States, 15 in France, 13 in Germany
 and in Italy and Spain. It is mentioned in
 the report that one firm in London posted as Rz- ,S, oko1
 and another firm 1892, GOO postal cards. The number of postoffices in the United Kingdom is 15, 4o6 and the total number of persons in
 the department holding permanent situations is about 4, 600. The list of retired officers in receipt of pensions shows total of 1885, whose pensions amount to e176, ,826 year. In addition to these about Al, 900 persons are employed by local postmasters, most of whom have other employment and are en- gagged in postal duties during only part of 1 the day. The operations of the telegraph department are summarized as follows Number of messages sent, 2,092, 026, an in crease of 746 ,165 over the previous year. The number of messages sent in London WAS 12 ,374, TOT, an increase of 30S, ,673. Fourteen postofices and railway stations were opened | for telegraph work during the year, making the total number of telegraph offices 5, 742. The gross revenue from the telegraph service
 was q TAO, ,O63, against e1 ,639, AS for the previous year, but owing to considerable increase in the working expenses of fhis l branch of the service the net revenue for | last year was but e235, ,570 against e264 ,S10 | in 1881 S2. A reduction in the minimum charge for inland telegrams from one shil 1 ling to sixpence is contemplated and will be made as soon as the necessary increase of plant can be effected. The business of the postal savings shows satisfactory progress | and is summarized Rs follows: The deposits at the close of the year amounted to
 more than e4o. ,ooo, an in
 crease of nearly s, ,000, 900 during the year. This is the largest annual increase since the establishment of the bank in 1861. There were 7S8, 1858 accounts open ed during the year and 557, ,494 closed and the number of individual accounts remain ing open at the close of the year was 28, 508, 976, an increase of 257, ,364 over the preced-
 ing year.
 The savings bank business in Ireland, Mir. Fawcett says again, shows a large annual in
 crease, the deposits amounting to e752,673, or nearly S1OO 900 more than the previous year. Accompanying the report was the
 usual appendix containing tabular state
 ;ments showing the growth of the different
 branches of the service during the past ten
 years and an extract from the first annual report of the department prepared in 1855,
 which contains great deal of interesting
 matter concerning the early history of the
 postal service in England.