Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 November 1876 — Postal Statisties. [ARTICLE]

Postal Statisties.

Wasrixoton Nov. It. The following interesting statistics are gleaned from the report of Gen. Barber, Third Assistant Poateaster-Generel* being extracts from the reports of the several bureaus in his offlda, (or the ending June 30, 1876: Four million seven thousand efchkhundred and aeveutean letters were registered during the year, itfid fees rocived Sher eon amounted to <335,416.60. Of the fetters registered, upon which fees were paid, 3,198,981 were domestic; 155,285 were sent to foreign countries; 668,651-were transmitted through the mails without payment of the registry fee. The losses of registefed mAtter have been very small. Of the total number of letters transmitted, only LIMB, W, .about one in 4,000, were absolutely lost These Josses occurred from various causes; Some by robberies of the mail, others by burning of postal-cars and poat offices; most of them by unavoidable casualties to the service, and no traces of the letters or their contents ever obtained. " • The number. of ordinary letter postage stamps issued to Postmasters for sale to the public during the year ending June 30,1876, was 698,709,u90, valued at <18,778,454; of newspapers and periodical stamps, 1,280,847, valued at $945,254.75; ordinary stamped envelopes, plain, 82,4(17,000, valued at <2,280,818 74; stamped envelopes bearing A "return request,” 64,554,500, valued at <2,079,578.80: ot newspaper wrappers, 18,498,750, valued at <273,723.50; of postal cards, 150,815,000, valued at <1,508,1w; official postage stamps for the use of the Executive Departments of the Government, 17,682,665; valued at <429,11().'.'3, making a total number of 1,049,797,507 valued at $26,958,421.72. The increase over the previous year was as follows;.Ordinary postage stamps, valued at <501,974, or 2-74 per cent.; o) newspaper stamps, <129,352.28, or 15.85 per cefit.; of ordinary stamped envelopes, plain, <234,207.39, or 11.44 pci; cent.; of special request stamped envelopes, $287,892.05, or 16.06 per cent.; of postal cards, <481,990, Or 40.14 per cent. The net increase in the value of stamps issued over the previous year was <1,578,469.48, or 16.47 per cent. There were issued also within the year 4.025,450 regi stored envelopes; 8,618,975 I'ostonice envelopes., and 1,572,000 dead letter envelopes, making a total of 14,271,425. JTJte amount collected from newspapers on. papers sent to regular subscribers was <l,(»G,_154.27, an. increase Of or 4.24 percent, <. The NeW York Postoffice alone during the year mailed 15,724,015 pounds, amounting to <347,875.56, an increase of <12,286.24; or 8.66 per cent, over the previous year. Gen. Barber, in his report, estimates that the Government loses nearly <3iPQ9> 000 a year by frauds, which consist mostly in the washing of stamps, and, reviewing all the experiments made to secure an indelible ink for canceling stamps, thinks the preventive to fraud is in the exclusive use of stamped envelopes. !j The issues of stamps are almost tte only revenue of the Postofflee Department, and represented last year nearly $27,000,000, the cost for their printing and preparation being less than <1,000,000. The following table shows the operations of the Dead Letter Office for the fiscal year ending June 80,1876: Description, No. received. Value Letters containing money... 35,612 <54,691 89 Containing drafts, bills of . - exchange, etc... 13,644 1,884,911 15 Total. ~9,156 <W,603 04 Containing jewelry and other property.... ........ .. 20,367 Containing receipts, bills of lading, etc.. Cj.,,.a, 25,7 j» , ■ Containing photogranhs 81.318 ’Containing postage stamps.. 87,054 Ordinary letters without in**; A t; : ■ c105ure53,829,979 Foreign letters without inclosures•’•••«, 203.553 Letters held for postage 307,359 > —t TetaL.....<,904,744 The work of the office < shows that there were 1,835,472 ordinary letters without inclosures, containing nothing important, destroyed, there not being anything in them to Indicate persons to whom they could be returned. There were returned to the owners 1,391,223 letters containing iqclosures, valued at <1,751,646.22, or about cightesn times as much as the Dead-Letter office costs the Government; 15,900 are nowavVaiting returns of notices sent to writers.

There have been large reductions in the numbers of letters received at the deadletter office this year, which is accounted for by the Superintendent, Mr Dallas, as follows: ~ 1. That the use of envelopes bearing requests or is becoming more general, and thus postmasters arc enabled to return an increased number of unclaimed letters direct to She writers. 4. The increased efficiency of the letter carrier service in large cities. 3. The action of .this office in calling the attention of postmasters to cases of mistreatment of correspondence, and thereby providing against a repetition of the error. The present manner of treating held for postage-letters, which was introduced in April, 1875, and referred to in my last report, vte.: holding them in the Dead Letter Office unopened, and requesting the addresses to furnish the necessary postage, has proven a success in this, that the department now receives its revenue upon this class of letters, and yet does not encourage the non-payment of postage by the writers, the delay in delivery being a Sufficient hardship to incite greater precaution in posting letters. Of the 307,559 letters held for postage 20,225 were either also misdirected or, addressed to foreign countries to which prepayment of postage is imperative, and hence> were opened and returned to the writers’. Notice to persons addressed was,sent in 278,357-Cases and 203,203 were' successfully delivered unopened. The balance, 68,201, were Anally 'opened, after haviilg been held the usual Seriod subject to "'the . orders ot the adressees. . • The whole number of applications made to this office for missing letters during the year was 8,405, and in 2,!)75. of jhese Cases the search was successful,. The anient of money taken from letters, which could ppt be restored to the owners was which re verts to the United States Treasdty. The amount .realised from the' auction sale of property found in dead letters in; January last was 12,853.17. H / ■■ t ■ . '’-n ■. The population of i Constantinople, with its suburbs, it is now estimated at 800,000, and the burdens of vessels clearing the ports at about ,4,000 tons. The Roumelian Railroad connects 4he city with the northern ponces, passing through, a wonderfully rich but wretchedly cultivated country, and before long there Mill be a more direclppwmunication with Europe'by- a* line meeting the Ruschuk-Varna Railroad and crossing the Danube at Gurgievo, to Join the terminus of the Roumanian trunk line.

Th® emancipation of the serfs in Russia has resulted in great poverty among their former owners. In the Transcaucasian Government of Kutais the last census gives 105 nobles to evfflyl,W Of the population, or in all 38.000 meinbers of toe nobility, of whom 24,000 are without any means of support, the act of emancipation having deprived them of toe greater part of their estates as well. as. the ownership of the laborers. w ■ o»—A private letter from London says that E. P- WinslOw, the Massachusetts still living near the Strand, and occasionally visits Bowles’ American Exchange. He has ft bdarfl, and looks like his former self, but he evidently feels his lost position acutely, and says that his mental suffering in prison was terrible. Some people’s backbones, like some railroad are put in on a curve.