XN000022-1997-03-18 — Page 7

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Last 1992 definitive stamp sheets sold out

The Hong Kong Post Office announced today (Tuesday) that the last stocks of 1992 definitive stamp sheets will be sold out today.

These stamps, being the last such stamps bearing the Queen's head, were available to the public at four post offices, namely the General Post Office in Central, Tsim Sha Tsui, Tsuen Wan and Sha Tin.

To ensure fairness, the Post Office implemented a quota system limiting the sale to each customer. The four post offices involved opened at 8 am. In addition to post office staff, over 70 security officers were hired specially for crowd control.

Some eleven thousand people are expected to have bought about a quarter of a million sheets of stamps. The last customers are expected to be served by late this evening.

The Post Office is greatly saddened by the death of an elderly gentleman, who died this morning of an apparent heart attack while queuing for stamps. This is an unfortunate and tragic incident.

The Post Office is committed to continuing to review its stamp sales procedures to ensure appropriate crowd control measures and fairness.

End

Latest unemployment and underemployment statistics out

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for the period November 1996 - January 1997 was 2.5%, and the underemployment rate was 1.4%, according to the latest labour force statistics released today (Tuesday) by the Census and Statistics Department.

For the period December 1996 - February 1997, both the provisional seasonally adjusted unemployment rate and the provisional underemployment rate fell further, to 2.4% and 1.2% respectively.

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