The previous year we had a profit of about £29,000. We made a substantial reduction, and because of that reduction we anticipated a pretty substantial loss. The actual loss is about £5,000, and for the current year, because of the extension of the use of telephones, we anticipate a profit of £2,500 or £3,000. In the case of post cards, which were reduced last year from three-halfpence to a penny, we anticipated a consequential loss of £15,000. This loss has materialised. The net gain in postcard business has been very disappointing. It increased only to the extent of five per cent. It is sometimes argued that cheap postage will mean an extended use of the post. In England, when the postal rates were reduced from twopence to three-halfpence the consequential increase was about three per cent. In our case, where post cards were reduced, because of representations that were made to us from Chambers of Commerce and other places, from three-halfpence to a penny, the net increase has been five per cent. I do not think that anybody will consider that very satisfactory.
It might be well to give the Dáil some idea of the extent and nature of the work handled by the Service, taking for this purpose the year 1924-25, because of the fact that for that period we have been able to get a complete return, and the return has not been complete for the year just terminated. In the year 1924-5 the number of letters posted amounted to 123,000,000, delivered 130,000,000; printed papers posted 32,000,000, delivered 48,000,000; inland post cards posted 7,000,000, delivered 9,000,000; parcels posted 4,818,385, delivered 5,184,604; newspapers posted 8,698,000, delivered 11,000,000; telegrams forwarded—that is, ordinary private telegrams as distinct from Press—3,469,000, received 3,250,000; pages of Press forwarded 37,000, pages received 120,000; express delivery service performed—ordinary express letters handed in at counters— 10,516, and express telephone messages 664, making a total of 11,180; inland money orders issued for payment in the Saorstát 701,000, value £5,066,000, and for payment in Great Britain and Northern Ireland 152,000, value £851,000; foreign money orders issued 17,986, value £67,000; money orders of Great Britain and Saorstát origin 1,176,000, value £7,191,000, and from foreign countries 291,000, value £1,094,000; postal orders issued 3,572,000, value £1,437,000, and paid 2,702,000, value £1,189,000, and pension orders paid 6,162,000, value £2,742,000.
I merely give these figures to indicate to the Dáil, firstly the nature, and secondly the extent of the particular items. There are a good many others. We have followed up our process of extending the use of motor vehicles for the carriage of mails throughout the country. Not only have we extended our Post Office service, but we have also changed the old horse-vehicle method of conveyance in an increasing number of cases where contractors are concerned. That increase has gone steadily on. Doubt was expressed at the time that we hinted at the discontinuance of staffs on the cross-channel services, as to whether these services could be maintained from the timing point of view. We said then that we believed the setting up of a sorting office at Westland Row, and other changes which we were enabled to bring about, would make that possible, and we have certainly kept our word. Not only has the day staff been discontinued, but also the night staff, and the retrenchment brought about has resulted in adding £21,000 to our finances. I might mention that we intend building a large sorting office at Westland Row. The present office is suitable enough to go on with, but cannot be regarded in any sense as a permanent one. It is being somewhat extended, but plans have been drawn up for the erection of quite a big sorting office there, to deal exclusively and entirely with Dublin postal matters. In addition to the erection of this building, improvements in other buildings throughout the State are contemplated during the year. The Limerick Post Office is being extended; we are hard pressed for staffs down there. Improvements are also being made in Dalkey, Killiney, Dundrum, Terenure and some other offices around the country. The rebuilding of the Dublin Post Office is proceeding. It is hoped that the front block will be open for public business before Christmas. I expect also, that the Henry Street wing will be finished about that time. The front block, of course, is the one that we are mainly concerned with, though the other will be a help to centralise some of our work.
During the year, the foreign letter mail services have been extended. Sealed despatches are now exchanged between the Saorstát and Belgium, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, the United States, Canada, Newfoundland, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, India, the Federated Malay States, the Straits Settlement, Mexico and the Argentine.
It will, therefore, be seen, that practically all of our foreign mails are despatched direct. This is a policy that was initiated soon after the Treaty. It has been pursued pretty vigorously, until we have now almost reached the stage when a direct exchange of mails is made with practically all foreign countries. This, of course, refers to letter mails. Parcel mails come under a slightly different category. It will be understood that the volume of parcel mails from many of these countries would not justify a direct despatch, but it has so justified itself in the case of the United States, Canada and Germany. The number of parcels received from the United States has been calculated to exceed the number sent from this country annually by 137,000. Hitherto, this surplus of American parcels was delivered here without compensation from the United States authorities, and some twelve months ago, we requested a Convention on the subject. The United States, in the first instance, offered what we considered rather meagre compensation for that surplus delivery, but after many exchanges of correspondence we succeeded in getting 30 cents per parcel for that excess. That amounts to £9,000 a year. In other words, we have got a nest-egg here which very few people had even thought of. I wonder if it ever occurred to the British in their time, that £9,000 could be got for the delivery of American surplus parcels? The Cobh route has been utilised to the fullest possible extent for mails to and from the United States and Canada, and no less than six shipping companies now call at Cobh, and nearly 4,000 sacks of mails pass through there during the year. In this connection, we have followed the principle of giving encouragement to every steam-ship company that calls at Cobh. The individual encouragement certainly is not great, but it is something, and it is recognised at any rate that the State is prepared to assist and encourage that development. All the companies are quite pleased to get even the small quota that can be allocated to any one of them. I venture to say that this attitude has had something to say to the fact that we have so many steam-ship companies calling there now.
Arrangements have been made with the United States for the acceptance of Saorstát correspondence for transmission by the New York-San Francisco air mail service. The amount of correspondence for this service is not very great, but yet we find it necessary to maintain and to keep in contact with a service of that kind. In the case of the Cairo-Bagdad air mail service we find a very general use has been made of it. This service offers a short route to India, and the correspondence with India is pretty considerable. We find that the air rout to India is being fairly generally availed of here. The whole question of Saorstát air services and their possible utilisation for the conveyance of mails is at present being examined by an inter-Departmental Committee. Covenants for a direct exchange of money orders were concluded during the year between this Government and the Governments of Australia and South Africa, and it is expected that arrangements for a similar service with France and India will be completed in a short time. Direct exchanges are also in operation with the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Germany. More expeditious services are thereby afforded to the public, who are relieved of the charge of through-commission at the rate of 2d. in the pound formerly deducted in London. Formerly, these foreign money orders passed through London, and in all cases the deduction of 2d. in the pound was made for that service. In the case of this country that deduction has now terminated to the advantage of the sender of the money order.
Prior to the imposition of the 6d. delivery fee from the 1st September, 1924, about 19,600 post parcels were despatched weekly to places outside and 54,000 weekly were imported. According to the latest returns taken in November last the number of parcels despatched remains, roughly, the same, but the number of incoming parcels has fallen to 36,600 weekly. About 4,000 of these come from places other than Gt. Britain and the Six Counties. This leaves a balance of about 13,000 surplus incoming as against outgoing parcels, but the fact is that since the imposition of the tax the number of incoming parcels has fallen very appreciably. The revenue from the parcel delivery fee, non-dutiable parcels, is £33,000 a year approximately, and from the Customs clearance fee, dutiable parcels, £15,000 a year, giving a total of £48,000 a year. As to the inland parcel post cash-on-delivery service, Deputies, I am sure, will be anxious to know how it is progressing. It was introduced as an experiment in 1924 as a result of demands from Deputies and the general public. The extent of its utilisation, however, fell much short of anticipations. We found it hard at the outset, notwithstanding repeated efforts on our part, to advertise the service, to get it going and to get people to realise its utility.
Latterly, however, it has shown an improving tendency, though that tendency is practically confined to Dublin. We had hoped that agriculturists would have availed of this service to send goods to cities and towns, but I must say we have been disappointed. So far, at any rate, very little use is being made of it. In April of last year the number of parcels posted on this cash-on-delivery basis was 345. That was somewhat above the normal, because in May and June following the numbers were 288 and 258 respectively. January of this year shows an upward curve with 487; February, 436; and March, 594. As a matter of fact this cash-on-delivery business is practically doubling itself every year. Whether it will continue to do so or not is another thing, but that is the experience so far. Its institution has not resulted in loss to the service, but I cannot say that we have made any very great profit, though it will, however, pay its way and has been doing so.
I now propose to give a comparative statement of telephone development since 1922. In 1922 there were 194 exchanges in the country. I suppose Deputies know what an exchange is as distinct from a call office. An exchange is an office in which there are a number of subscribers, and a call office is merely a terminal post office. It terminates with the post office. That is the difference between the two. In 1922 the number of exchanges was 194, and in 1926, 388, showing an increase of 194 exchanges. In 1922 there were 552 call offices, and in 1926 that number had increased to 826, an increase of 274. As regards stations, otherwise subscribers, in 1922 there were 19,101, and in 1926, 22,946, an increase of 3,147. Rural party lines have only increased by 1, otherwise from 3 to 4. There are 19 subscribers. We endeavoured to extend this party line system during last year. The minimum cost per station is £4. It provides a service not only between the various subscribers on the single line, but also with the local exchange, free, gratis and for nothing, the total cost being only £4 in cases where there are three subscribers to the mile on the line. Up to now we have not been very successful in spreading this party line system. That is rather unfortunate, as that system is in very general use in other countries, particularly among farming communities. It may be that it will extend here later on, but up to now we have not had a very encouraging response. In the case of subscribers I have said that the net increase amounted to only 3,147. As a matter of fact, since 1922 we have actually put in over 12,000 installations, but we have lost over 8,000 subscribers in that time. The loss of many of that 8,000 could perhaps be traced to a reduction of the telephone service used by the military. At the same time it cannot be denied that many business people who had the telephone have given it up, I suppose through a decline in business, failures and causes of that kind.
We have extended the telephones very generally throughout the country and done our best to get new subscribers. It appears to me that the telephone habit has not yet caught on here and the public have not fully wakened up to the value of the telephone. We have done our part. We have made the service practically universal. Every town and village, I think I can truly say, will have an installation by the time the next report is presented here, yet the public do not seem to cut in. They do not seem to realise the commercial value of this service, and it can hardly be claimed that the telephone is expensive. A very substantial cut was made in it last year. A private person may have a telephone, let us say in Dublin, for a sum not exceeding £8 a year. That is not excessive, but nevertheless we find it difficult enough to get subscribers. I hope the outlook will change.