Daily Kennebec journal., 1902-02-28
BITS or LOCAL INTEREST
Found In the Reports Of the Postoffice
Department.

| Copies of the reports of the post office
department for the fiscal year ended June
80, 1901 are now being distributed From
these It Ii ssen that The gross receipts al
State of Maine post effiees a.fieutited t.
sSOi -. IS, of which the receipts at the
! Augusta office We're sl2692O.04; in other
words more than one-seventh the entire
receipts. Clerk hire at the Augusta of
, flee amounted to $40, 299 and in addition
! the cost CT free delivery amounted 10
s755JJ9.2S. The total expenses of the office
were i2.25iS1: the net revenue, SSi.C5.B.
making the rer cent. of expense to gross
receipts SO. the lowest with but six excep-
; tions in the State. PASSPORT Miilinocket
! and Old Town also made a showing of =
per cent. while Camden was % and Rum
! ford Falls and Saco ~ each. IN
| But these tabular statistics in tie re-
port by no means give the Augusta office
its full share of credit: very far from It.
Nor is it possible to do so, it Is said, BY
any of the methods now in use by the de-
rartment for estimating the amount OF
business done at the various post offices.
By way of illustration, 1t may be said
that the gross receipts credited to the Au-
SuStd OIl1ct Ds are Hliuc
up of the amounts received from sales
of stamps. the comparatively small
amount from box rents and that from
second class postage at the rate Of cent
pound. Practically all the postage on
first. third and fourth classes Of mail
matter sent out by the publishing house,
here is paid for by stamps not bought
at the Augusta Office but received by
the publishers in mail orders. there being
no suitable currency for that purpose
The amount of this for which the Angus
Ia office does not get credit but does get
the work is. according to information OBJ
tained by the Journal from various
sources, at a conservative estimate s125.-
900 year. Then the amount of mail
common. registered and money orders re-
ceive1 here is altogether disp-oportionate-
ly large as compared with the receipts
from stamps, etc.
There was dispatched from this offic',
during the year ended June 80, 1901, 9.Oo1,
134 lbs of second class mall one Thirty
eighth the entire amount of this class of
mail dispatched in the entire country.
These reports from the department de-
vote considerable attention to the allege
loss to the government from handling
second class mail but do not, is appears
from the report, credit the enterprise.
which promotes that class of pub ications,
with giving rise to an immense volume
of first. third and fourth class matter.
from the postage on which the govern
ment admits that it derives a profit
Right here in Augusta the publishers
has hoo N
s125,OOO in postage in addition to that
which they pay on their publications,
while the postage on the mail which
they receive must amount to four or five
times as much, both of which amounts
would be lost to the government should
these publications suspend unless other
publications of like character and SINH
larly managed took the places thus maze
vacant.
AS during the previous year, Augusta
holds it's position as eighth city in the
United States in the amount of second
class matter dispatched therefrom. The
first eight are: New York with 96,219, 4S5
lbs. Chicago with 81, ,Sl2 lbs; St. Louis
with %, ,S25 $50 lbs; Philadelphia with 22,-
O69. .54S lbs; Boston with 1S,967,SSS lbs;
Kansas City with 10,S6l,47S lbs; Cincin-
natl with 9,2799 1854 lbs; then Augusta with
1901 ,l3i lbs, an increase for Augusta OF
74S, 7S3 lbs. over the previous year.
Under The reports of special delivery
business it appears that the total num-
ber of special delivery letters and pack
ages received at this Office for the year
was 1874, and the average time of delv-
cry after receipt was % minutes.
La, ro,. 90,
lbs. of newspaper mail that received free
county circulation, while in Massachu-
setts the amount was only 9S, 233 lbs
Heretofore the department had only esti-
mated the per cent which this free dis
tribution bore to the whole second-class
matter and arrived at the conclusion that
it was Is per cent. The past year it mod
flied the receipt books SO that record was
kept of the free matter, with the result
that it found the per cent. to be So in
stead of the Is per cent, in other words
less than half.