the north. Another road was started from Tsun Wan leading over the western shoulder of Taimoshan, the Colony's highest mountain, into the Kam Tin valley, a feat of construction which rivals the excellent road system connecting the city of Victoria with the summit of Victoria Peak on Hong Kong Island.
At Au Tau in the New Territories the longest bridge in the Colony is nearing completion. The bridge is 275 feet long and provides a 22-ft. carriageway with two 7-ft. footpaths. It replaces an older bridge damaged during the war.
The Post Office
Postal traffic has remained at a high level. With heavy building commitments already in hand for other departments, it has been necessary to adopt temporary expedients for dealing with the tremendous volume of postal traffic.
The sorting offices at the G.P.O. and at Kowloon have been completely re-equipped with modern sorting fittings, and speedier handling of mails has been made possible. Three new lifts have been constructed in the G.P.O. and parcels are now handled on the ground floor and not, as formerly, in the basement, where health conditions for workers were not up to standard.
The difficult position with regard to the exchange of mail with the Chinese authorities continues; the Kowloon-Canton Railway still serves as the only regular means of transport out of the Colony, and all mails sent and received by this route still have to be transferred by hand at the border to and from the Chinese section of the railway.
Christmas postings showed an increase of nearly 40% over the previous year. Over 4,000 bags of mail for local delivery were unloaded from ships during the Christmas week and well over one million items were posted in that week.
The total number of letter articles posted during the year was 36,036,338 of which 32% were for delivery within the Colony, 46% were for overseas destinations sent by surface means and 22% by air. From other countries 27,023,100 articles were received of which 68% were for delivery on Hong Kong Island and 32% for Kowloon and the New Territories. The total number of registered articles handled during the year was 2,150,000. Parcel post traffic continued to be heavy; the total number of parcels posted for overseas destinations was 228,500 and the number received for delivery within the Colony, 136,340.
Money order and postal order business showed an all-round increase; money orders issued and paid amounted to $1,742,615 and
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