COMMUNICATIONS AND TRANSPORT
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together with all outward and inward airmails being transferred to and from the airlines. four more post offices were opened during the year, making a total of 82 post offices including two mobile post offices - operating throughout the territory.
Overseas letter postage rates were revised on July 1 to take account of decisions made by the Universal Postal Union and increased conveyance and local handling costs. At the same time, the airmail zone structure was simplified with the result that airmail letter rates to North and South America were generally reduced. Local letter postage rates remained unchanged but the inland parcel rates and surface printed paper rates were increased on October 1.
The door-to-door delivery scheme in the rural areas was extended to a total of 373 villages in the New Territories. In the urban areas, two deliveries are generally provided on each weekday. Although there has been a continuous increase in the volume of letters and parcels handled, the Post Office in general is still able to achieve its target of delivering local letter mail within 24 hours after the date of posting.
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Overall, during 1981, a total of 463 million letters and parcels - a daily average of 1.3 million - were handled, representing an increase of 14.3 per cent over 1980.
Airmail traffic continued to increase. More than 5 500 tonnes of mail was despatched by air and over 3 200 tonnes of air mail was received from abroad representing increases of 7.5 per cent and 15.4 per cent, respectively over 1980. An average of 26 tonnes of mail was handled at the airport each day, including two tonnes of mail sent in transit through Hong Kong.
The Speedpost service has proved to be popular and now extends to 18 countries Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Japan, Kuwait, Macau, the Netherlands, South Africa, South Korea, Singapore, Switzer- land, Taiwan, the United Kingdom and the United States. An increase of 95 700 items, representing 44 per cent over that handled in 1980, was recorded.
Philatelic sales also continued to increase. There were three special stamp issues in 1981. Four stamps were issued in January based on the theme 'Hong Kong Fish' and depicted the most common species of fish found in Hong Kong namely Red Grouper, Golden Thread, Toothed Wrasse and Parrot fish. In July three stamps were issued to commemorate the Royal Wedding of the Prince of Wales to Lady Diana Spencer and over 800 000 first day covers were sold – almost twice as many as the previous record sales. The third special issue was released in October with 'Public Housing' as its theme. It comprised four stamps and a souvenir miniature sheet containing the four stamps. To meet the requirements of the revised overseas surface mail rates a new 90 cent definitive stamp was also issued in October. This brings to 15 the number of denominations in the current definitive stamp issue.
Agency services carried out by the Post Office to the public on behalf of other govern- ment departments included the payment of social welfare benefits amounting to $20 million a month.
Telecommunications Services
The Postmaster General is the Telecommunications Authority in Hong Kong and he administers the Telecommunication Ordinance which governs the establishment and operation of all telecommunications services. He also acts as adviser to the government on matters concerning the provision of public telecommunications services including internal and international telephone, telegraph, telex and data services, and the technical aspects of radio and television broadcasting.