STATISTICS.] P S T-0 F F I C E TABLE VII. United Kingdom. Estimated Inland Delivery of Letters, 1839-1884. ] 571 Delivered in England and Wales. 3 fej | 2 d g QJ ^ g Year ending 31st December until 1876, and thereafter By ii,. In London District, <-, Total in England per c nnum II Total in per cc nnum. Total in u a 2 p Total in United - S, is 3 fe S P, the Financial Year ending Country S 73 including oi-w a ^3 Scotland. g =3 & Ireland. K rt &f> Kingdom. x a &-S 31st March. Offices. Local ?. c g a fc S 3 S g g
- ~ S
S s g Letters. u u * d ^ H 3S 5 $2 1" <$ EstimatedNo. of Letters, 1 839 Franks, 1839 60,000,000 5,172,000 w 8,090,000 336,000 H 8,000,000 1,055,000 H 76,000,000 6,563,000 f 3 Letters,1840 88,000,000 44,000,000 132,000,000 120-0 8 19,000,000 143-5 18,000,000 119-2 2 169,000,000 W.-9: 7 Average of 5 years, 1841-45 ,, 1846-50 122,000,000 180,000,000 10-7 j 57,000,000 5-5 79,000,000 9-b 5-5 179,000,000 259,000,000 10-2 5-2 11 15 24,000,000 34,000,000 9-2 4-2 9 12 24,000,000 34,000,000 9-5 s-o 3 4 227,000,000 10-0 327,000,000! 5-0 8 12 1851-55 233,000,000 6-5 97,000,000 5-0 330,000,000 6-0 18 41,000,000 5-2 14 39,000,000 3-5 6 410,000,000 fi-7 15 1856-60 302,000,000 4-2 125,000,000 5-5 427,000,000 4-5 22 51,000,000 3-2 16 45,000,000 3-0 7 523,000.000 4-9, 18 1861-65 373,000,000 5-7 161,000,000 5-7 534,000,000 fa -7 29 61,000,000 0-5 20 53,000,000 3-2 9 6-18,0(10,000 5-5 1866-70 472,000,000 4-2 192,000,000 3-2 664,000,000 4-0 31 76,000,000 4-7 24 60,000,000 3-2 11 800,000,000 4-0 26 Year 1871 501,000,000 0-5 220,000,000 7-0 721,000,000 2-5 32 80,000,000 1-2 24 66,000,000 3-0 13 867,000,000 2-3 27 1875 580.081.400 4-8 266,771,000 6-5 846,852,400 ft -3 35 90,976,400 0-9 26 70,563,300 0-8 13 1,008,392,100 4-6 31 1879-80 640.033.900 2-2 310,077,990 4-8 950,111,800 3-0 38 101,948,300 3-0 28 75,937,400 14 1,127,997,500 2-8 33 ,, 1880-81 650,952,700 1-7 330,419,300 6-6 981,372,000 3-8 38 104,995,200 3-0 29 78,799,700 3-8 15 1,165,16(1,900 3-3 34 ,, 1881-82 (185,169,600 5-3 352,147,100 6-6 1,037,316,700 5-7 40 109,799,900 4-6 29 82,238,200 4-4 16 1,229,354,800 5-5 35 1882-83 713,089,100 736,962,700 4-1 364,558,100 3-3 375,229,500 3-5 2 9 1,077,647,200 1,112,192,200 3-9 3-2 41 116,509,800 41 122,204,800 6-1 4-6 32 86,479,200 87,689,900 5 2 1-4 17 17 1,280,636,200 l,322,08ti,900 4-2 3-2 36 37 ,, 1883-84 The statistics of post -cards, book -packets, and newspapers delivered in the United Kingdom in different years from 1872 to 1884 stand thus (Table VIII.) : Estimated Number of Post-Cards. 2 England & Wales. Scotland. Ireland. United Kingdom. - fe d ~ s |g Year.
C} ^ B h sS Number.
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Number. Number. Is, Number. IK 5 -*^ o-t! fl ~ a g c g M M 8 1-1 o 1872 64,000,000 8,000,000 4,000,000 76,000,000 1875 73,369,100 11-6 9,206,300 6-7 4,540,900 5-5 87,116,300 10-7 1878-79 94,471,500 9-8 11,599,000 4-8 5,375,200 5-0 111,445,700 9-0 1881-82 114,251,500 10-4 14,651,400 9-3 6,426,100 6-9 135,329,000 10-1 1882-83121,243,300 1883-84;128,554,800 6-1 6-0 15,541,800 17,406,400 6-1 9-3 7,230,900 12-5 7,624,900^ 5-4 144,016,000 153,586,100 6-4 6-6 Estimated Number of Book-Packets and Circulars. 1872 90,000,000 13,000,000 11,000,000 114,000,000 1875 133,394,900 15-2 15,723,700 9,548,000 158,666,60( 11-7 1878-79 164,789,400 4-5 21,320,100 10,967,000 6-7 197,076,500 4-1 1881-82 228,999,400 12-3 27,875,000 15-0 14,164,300 16-9 271,038,700 12-8 1882-83 244,713,800 6-9 28,896,000 3-7 14,596,600 3-1 288,206,400 6-3 1883-84 249,347,000 1-9 31,353,700 7-8 13,892,900 4-9 294,594,500 2-2 (dec.) Estimated Number of Newspapers. 1872 87,000,000 12,000,000 10,000,000 . . 109,000,000 1875 93,345,600 2-3 13,819,100 4-5 13,884,700 10-2 121,049,400 3-4 1878-79 100,424,300 2-2 14,477,500 15,993,500 3-6 130,895,300 1-8 1881-82:108,651,700 5-7 15,477,300 2-4 16,660,100 47 140,789,100 5-2 1882-83 108,613,500 15,784,600 2-0 16,204,500 .. 140,602,600 1883-84109,945.100 1-2 16,729,600 5 6 16,027,600 1-1 142,702,300 1-5 Table IX. (compare with Table VI. ) gives the estimated number of letters, &c., which passed between the United Kingdom and countries abroad during the year ending 31st March 1884. 3 Received from Countries abroad. Despatched to Countries abroad. Total. Letters and post cards. Book Packets and News papers. Letters and post cards. Book Packets and News papers. African Colonies (Brit.) Argentine Republic .... Australia and New Zealand Austria-Hungary Belgium 1,049,000 96,200 1,801,500 579,400 1,620,000 177,300 1,505,000 443,400 452,400 7,555,700 6,880,800 123,600 1,500,400 2,248,000 1,821,500 362,200 399,800 885,000 55,300 1,949,500 281,700 662,700 50,100 1,120,800 197,000 184,700 7,127,700 2,963,600 54,900 428,300 806,000 643,700 62,000 83,800 251,600 467,400 95,300 384,100 89,100 7,851,400 109,200 1,645,600 168,700 2,229,000 695,400 1,784,400 266,400 1,862,200 453,900 684,500 8,247,200 7,129,000 123,900 1,595,100 2,652,700 2,738,500 457,800 351,900 718,000 909,500 460,700 985,500 392,600 9,088,900 355,700 2,832,600 182,000 4,431,300 505,700 747,300 343,200 2,139,200 179,400 565,200 4,579,400 3,143,500 135,000 609,200 4,065,200 1,655,700 159,800 337,000 477,800 858,400 239,300 617,200 461,800 8,389,800 597,800 6,412,200 502,200 10,411,300 2,062,200 4,814,400 837,000 6,627,200 1,273,700 1,886,800 27,500,000 20,116,900 437,400 4,133,000 9,771,900 6,859,400 1,041,800 1,172,500 2,075,600 3,081,700 1,173,100 2,879,700 1,280,800 32,909,900 1,328,200 Brazil Canada Denmark Egypt France and Algeria .... Germany Greece Holland India and Ceylon . . Italy Norway Portugal Russia 628,200 846,400 377,800 892,900 337,300 7,579,800 260,500 Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey United States.... . !! West Indies (British) . . Thirtieth Report of the Po, 2 Ibid., p. 15. tr-General, 1884, p. 14. 3 Ibid., pp. 16, 17. Meanwhile the position of many efficient workers in the postal service, who had helped to bring about these satisfactory results, stood greatly in need of improvement. The humbler class of clerks, most of the sorters, and the entire body of metropolitan letter-carriers were prominent in expressing discontent, and they were able to show good grounds for it. The telegraphists soon followed with like representations, though their hardships were assuredly less. The result has been a large measure of amelioration in pay and in position, effected in part by Lord John Manners, and more especially by Mr Fawcett, who in 1883 estimated that these improvements would involve an annual cost of about 63,000. The systematic employment of women in Her Majesty s postal Employ- and telegraph service was for a long time an experiment and a meut of problem. It may now be said, most accurately, that, on the whole, women. the experiment is grandly successful, and the problem fully solved. In telegraphic labour female counter-clerks and telegraphists were actively employed before the transfer to the state. The postmaster- general of 1870 (Lord Hartington) did but accept what he found established. Under the new regulation, he employed women as tele graphists for eight hours daily, at scales of pay which varied from eight shillings a week to thirty, according to age, intelligence, and practical experience of the work. At first the women were put into separate galleries, afterwards into the same galleries with men and boys ; and the change was found to work advantageously for all. As regards the postal service proper, the general introduction there into of female labour was effected, under the rule of Lord John Manners, by Sir John Tilley. The situations were eagerly sought for. At the close of 1880 there were in the three capital cities of London, Edinburgh, and Dublin alone very nearly a thousand female telegraphists ; and throughout the kingdom a number not much inferior of women of various grades, employed in minor postal services, over and above the number of those whose employ ment is but an incident of their family position, as the wives and daughters of sub-postmasters and the like. The best and the most entirely successful experiment of all was that of 1875, which offered postal clerkships expressly to "gentlewomen," and conspicuously to the daughters of officers of the army and navy and of officials in the civil service, admissible only between seventeen and twenty years of age after six months satisfactory probation, and organized in 1876 into two classes, each under a lady superior, who holds the position of a staff-officer. All promotions are made according to merit. Those of class I. have 80 to 100, and the "principal female clerks 100 to 150 a year ; class II. 40 to 75. The same work which formerly occupied male clerks at 80 to 240 is now equally well done by female clerks at 40 to 75, and so in proportion with the other classes." 4 Subjoined are (1) the latest financial statement of postal expendi ture for the year 1883-84, and (2) some comparisons of the nett revenue of the post-office at various periods. United Kingdom. Expenditure for year ending 1st March 1884. Post-office services, postal savings banks, annuities branch, &c. 4,507,500 Mail-packet service 721,100 Telegraph service 1,707,000 Grand total 6,935,600 In 1643 the nett revenue was about 5000 a year. In 1653 it was farmed to John Manley for 10,000 a year, and ten years afterwards to Daniel O Neill for 21,500. In 1677 the farm rent was raised to 43,000. In 1685 the nett revenue had grown to 65,000, in 1707 to 111,426, in 1790 to 331,180, in 1800 to 720,982. In 1808 the nett revenue (for Great Britain) was 1,100,606, in 1820-21 1,495,945, in 1839 1,659,510, in 1849
4 Quarterly Review, 1881, vol. cli. p. 187 an article by Lady John Manners.