ENG-1948 — Page 158

There are

to be doubled to meet present day requirements. 3,000 applicants on the waiting list for Post Office boxes and lack of space prevents the installation of new boxes.

Additions to the Department's transport have now

made

it possible to effect pillar box collections by motor van and to improve the cross harbour mail services. The Colony continues to be well served by air lines and most parts of the world can be reached by air direct from Hong Kong. In April, 1948, an arrangement was made with Hong Kong Airways by which all first class mail for Canton was carried by air at the surface. rate. There are three services to and from Canton each way daily and the transit time is one hour. An air parcel service between Hong Kong and the United States was inaugurated in October, 1948, and has exceeded expectations in the volume of mail it has attracted. The direct Money Order service with Pakistan was opened in September, 1948.

The Silver Wedding Commemorative Stamps were placed on sale on the 22nd December, 1948, and first day sales amounted to over $88,000.

The year was noteworthy for a very large increase in business transacted by the Post Office. Just over half a million mail bags of ordinary mail were handled, an increase of more than 44% over 1947 while over 37,000 bags of air mail were dealt with, an increase of one third over the previous year. Nearly $10 million worth of stamps were sold, an increase of nearly 30%, and the total value of money orders issued and paid amounted to over one million dollars, an increase of 58% over the 1947 value. Postal Orders to the value of $286,077 were issued and paid.

Telecommunications.

All the communications services, including marine, meteorological and aeradio services and the engineering side of broadcasting, which had hitherto been directly administered by Government, were transferred to Cable & Wireless, Ltd. on 1st November, 1948. Certain technical developments were necessarily deferred pending completion of the transfer, but several improvements were nevertheless effected during the year. The main transmitter building at the Cape d'Aguilar transmit- ting station has been extended and additional transmitters for commercial services are being installed.

New and higher power transmitters for the marine medium-wave services have been installed.

The main expansion during the past year has been in con- nection with air services. The aeradio station at Kai Tak Airport

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