Post_Office_1950-1951 — Page 10

secure connexion with deliveries at 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. on both sides of the harbour, in Victoria and in Kowloon. Arrangements were also made for collections to be made from all boxes in the town areas on Sundays and holidays and for the collections to be made much later on those days than was formerly the case.

STAMP CANCELLING MACHINES.

15. The installation of three electrically-operated "Universal" stamp cancelling machines proved of great assistance in the rapid post-marking of correspondence. On an average, over two million items passed through the machines each month.

REGISTRATION AND INSURANCE.

16. Registered mail again increased from 1,835,053 in 1949/50 to 2,292,628 items in 1950/51, an increase of almost 25%. The continuous yearly increases in the work handled in the Registration Branch are indicated below:

Year

1948/49

1949/50

Number of registered articles dealt with

1,575,945

1,835,053

1950/51

2,292,628

The increases are attributable to heavier postings of registered items in Hong Kong by Government Departments and commercial houses for delivery locally. Another important factor is the continued diversion to Hong Kong of direct air mails formerly despatched to offices on the main- land of China from other Postal Administrations. A large percentage of the registered items received, diverted from former direct air mails from U.S.A. and other countries, contained "remittances" from

from overseas Chinese, which are now sent to Hong Kong for onward transmission through the postal hongs or by bank transfers. On one day, just prior to Chinese New Year, the number of registered letters received at Hong Kong from other countries totalled 15,299. The fact that over two million registered letters were dealt with in Hong Kong, under congested office conditions, without a single loss being reported locally, reflects great credit on all officers concerned.

PARCEL POST.

17. Parcel post statistics show an increase of 53,897 parcels or almost 14%. The total number of parcels dealt with in 1949/50 was 385,322 and in 1950/51 the number handled was 439,219. The heaviest

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