The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1899-09-02
WORK OF POSTAL DEPARTMENT
LAST YEAR.
Immense Advance in Eighteen Years.
Business Three Times as Great-Some
Instructive Statistical Figures.

There is no department of the Gov
eminent says Bradstreet's whose oper-
atoms came home so closely to mems
business and bosoms as the POstoffice
Department and there is none the stat
istics of which furnish so accurate a
measure of the business of the country
as a whole. Taking into account the
condition of business as well as the
general circumstances of the country,
we might naturally look for great in
crease in the business of the Postal De-
partment of the Government and this
expectation is not disappointed by the
preliminary figures which have been
made public regarding the business of
the fiscal year just closed. They indi-
cate that the greatest business of which
the Postal Department has any record
was transacted in the fiscal year end
ing with June 30, 1898, and that while
the number of postal issues is over three
times as great as it was eighteen years
ago, the revenue represented is but lit
tie short of three times the amount de-
rived therefrom by the department in
1882
In making comparisons with the fiscal
year preceding it is found that in every
single item of receipts an increase is
recorded over the preceding year. The
sale of ordinary stamps brought in
more than S., 0O0, 900 more while the sale
of postal cards resulted in a revenue
not far from 80 per cent greater. Taken
as whole, the stamped paper issues
were valued at $92, 659, 167 in the fiscal
year ending with June, 1899 as compar-
ed with $S4, 1872, 446 in the fiscal year inn
mediately preceding. The number of
single pieces issued-single stamps. en-
VelOpeS and postal cards-increased
from 4,614, 526090 in the fiscal year 1898
to 5,162, 020, 525 in the fiscal year 1899
which was gain of not far from l.
per cent. The number of postal cards
issued increased from 556 $50, $50 in 1898
to 1886, 400 in 1899
1t is in considering the figures over a
period of years that the great increase
in the postal business of the country
can be most clearly estimated. The
number of pieces issued in the fiscal
year ending in 1881 amounted to 1.499,-
113,49S having face value of 1884, 4SS, -
SOB. BY the year 1884 the number of
pieces issued had increased to 2,160, 929, e.
1856, having a value of SAL, $50, 701. BY the
fiscal year 1889 the number of pieces is
sued had increased to ISIS. 565, 321, and
their value had grown to 1921, 7S4. In
the decade which has elapsed since. the
growth of postal business has been
particularly noteworthy. The number
of pieces issued has almost doubled.
reaching in the fiscal year just closed
the total of 5,162, 202,525, while the face
value of the same has increased by over
$39, 100000. 1t is quite evident from the
figures given that the postal business
of the Government is. to say the least,
keeping pace in growth with the general
business of the country, and that in the
present as in the past ii continues to
furnish one of the most accurate indicia
of the development not only of social
but of commercial intercOmmunicatiOn
between the citizens of the republic