STAMP VENDORS
37. A total of 53 additional stamp vendor permits were issued mostly to persons with shops in districts where no post offices are available. 14 licences were revoked during the year. This brought the total of premises licensed at the end of the year to sell stamps and aerogrammes to 294.
PRIVATE BOXES
38. To meet the heavy demand for private Post Office boxes a total of 3,400 additional boxes were installed-2,700 in the General Post Office, Hong Kong, and 700 in Kowloon Central Post Office. This resulted in all outstanding applications being met for the first time in many years.
39. Revenue from the renting of private boxes and private bag services amounted to $335,750.73, showing an increase of $75,091.48 over the preceding year.
FRANKING MACHINES
40. The use of postage franking machines continued to be popular and an additional twenty machines were licensed during the year, bring- ing the total in use to 173.
SERVICES TO OTHER DEPARTMENTS
41. The estimated value of free services rendered to other Govern- ment Departments was $868,557 as against $885,214 for the previous year.
POSTAL SERVICES
42. Traffic in most classes of postal business showed an increase over the previous year.
43. The total number of letters and packets posted and delivered, excluding parcels, registered and insured items, amounted to 151,854,483, representing an increase of 34% over the previous year. These figures do not, however, include approximately 6 million small packets which were despatched to China during the year as the traffic was abnormal. Inclusion would show an increase of 7.6% in the number of items handled.
44. The number of undeliverable letters referred to the Dead Letter Office continued to increase, the total for the year being 832,936 as
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