The total receipts for the year were $1,112,612.24 (or 4.0+ per cent.) less than those of the preceding year, and $1,126,618.54 (or 4.0+ per cent.) less than the estimates therefor. The decrease is largely in the item of official postage-stamps, the amount derived from which, during the last fiscal year, was only $370,730.47, while in the previous year it was $1,281,389.43. Excluding official postage stamps and money-order receipts from both fiscal years the reduction in ordinary receipts was only $183,592.29, or about threefifths of one per cent. As explained by note appended to the summary of receipts and expenditures in the accompanying report of the auditor, the appropriation for official postage-stamps for the Post Office Department was not available as revenue, because of the terms of the act making the appropriation, and accordingly the amount of such stamps used by this department during the last fiscal year ($656,095.50) does not appear either in the aggregate receipts or in the receipts from official postage-stamps. The expenditures and receipts by fiscal quarters, and the increase or decrease therein, as compared with the corresponding quarters of 1874–75 and 1875-'76, are shown by table No. 3, which accompanies the report of the Third Assistant Postmaster-General. The following amounts were drawn from the Treasury during the fiscal year, on appropriations: For steamship service to China and Japan $250,000 00 In pursuance of act of Congress (Statutes, chap. 105, p. 355,) of March 3, 1877..... To supply deficiencies in the revenues for the year ended June 30, 1877. 5, 250, 000 00 1,450,000 0 62,300 00 1,000 00 Total 7,013,300 00 The estimated expenditures for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1879, are. $36, 427, 771 00The ordinary revenues are estimated at 3 per cent. over the last fiscal year, making Estimated revenue from money-order business... $27,798, 098 28 1,036, 000 00 Total estimated revenue for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1879. 29,034, 098 28 Estimated excess of expenditures to be appropriated out of the general Of the appropriations for deficiencies, there were unexpended on June 30, 1876, the following amounts: 7,393, 672 72 For fiscal year ended June 30, 1875... For fiscal year ended June 30, 1876... $564, 353 13 2,852, 705 00 Amount appropriated for fiscal year of 1876-77.... 3, 417, 058 13 5,667, 498 00 Making a total of unexpended appropriations for deficiencies, undrawn and available, of $9,084, 556 13. During the last fiscal year the following amounts were drawn on account of payments for previous fiscal years, viz: For fiscal year of 1874-'75 For fiscal year of 1875-'76 For fiscal year of 1876-'77 Add amount of balance of appropriation for 1874-75, carried to surplus-fund of the Treasury A total of...... $450,000 00 1,000,000 00 5,250,000 00 6,700,000 00 114,353 13 Amount of deficiency-appropriations undrawn and available for payments of indebtedness to June 30, 1877.... $6,814, 353 13 2,270,203 00 Against the above sum there are chargeable the following unsettled accounts, estimated : Mail-service under contract, or recognized, not yet reported for payment..... Mail-service unrecognized Total $122,354 43 645,073 46 Leaving, after settlement of all liabilities to June 30, 1877, a net balance on deficiency-appropriations, of...... 1,625, 129 54 POSTAGE-STAMPS, STAMPED ENVELOPES, AND POSTAL CARDS ISSUED. The number of ordinary stamps issued during the past fiscal year was 689,580,670, valued at...... $18, 181, 676 00 1,000, 605 10 2,281, 574 11 2,069, 995 65 265,362 00 1,700, 155 00 614, 107 20 412, 361 41 26, 525,836 47 There has been a general decrease in the issues of these articles from those of last year, as shown by the following table: In transmitting the above supplies, there have been lost in the mails but two packages, of the aggregate value of $82.15; an unprecedentedly small loss. Under the present system of collecting postage on newspaper and periodical publications mailed to regular subscribers from the offices of publication, (which system originated in the act of Congress approved June 23, 1874,) there has been collected during the year on this class of matter the sum of $1,024,719.16, derived from 40,865,246 pounds at 2 cents per pound, and 6,913,808 pounds at 3 cents per pound. The increase in the whole amount collected over that for the preceding year was $10,564.89, or 1.04+ per cent. The operations of the Dead-Letter Office are fully stated in the report of the Third Assistant Postmaster-General, and tables Nos. 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14, appended thereto. This business may be briefly summarized as follows: Total number of letters received during the year 3,288,290, an average of 10,676 for each working day, and classified thus: ordinary mail letters, 2,113,827; local or drop, 411,600; of domestic origin returned from foreign countries, 108,486; foreign origin, 186,181; returned to post offices by proprietors of hotels, 57,186; held for postage, 313,464; misdirected, 67,301; fictitious, 16,794; containing unmailable matter, 2,094; ship, 2,261; without address, 7,020; and 5,909 registered letters. They are further classified according to their contents as follows: 24,580 contained $40,062.41 in money; 11,421 contained commercial paper to the value of $1,301,780.49; 804 contained deeds, mortgages, leases, railroad and other passage tickets, pension-certificates, and bank-books; 38,265 contained postage-stamps; 27,185 contained photographs; 26,348 contained jewelry, clothing, books, chromos, music, merchandise, &c.; 23,025 contained receipts, bills of lading, affidavits, abstracts of title, paid notes, and cancelled obligations of all sorts. The amount of money taken from letters which could not be restored to the owners and deposited in the Treasury was $4,754. A comparison of the gross receipts of all classes of dead letters with that of last year shows a reduction of 296,454, or about eight per cent.; which is accounted for by the fact that a less number of letters was mailed during the year and the increased efficiency of the delivery service. The number of registered letters and packages forwarded through the mails during the year was 4,378,127, of which 145,908 were addressed to foreign countries. The amount of fees collected (exclusive of postage) was $367,438.80; an increase over the previous year of $32,022.20, or nearly 11 per cent. The number of registered packages of postagestamps, stamped envelopes, postal cards, United States bonds, currency, and internal-revenue stamps carried for the Post Office and Treasury Departments was 375,453, valued at $150,677,877.01, of which only one package of postage-stamps, valued at $74, and one of stamped envelopes, valued at $8.15, were lost in transit. In the light of such evidence as this, the public may safely rely upon the registry system as a sure means of conveyance for valuable matter. CONTRACTS. There were in the service of the department on the 30th of June, 1877, 6,018 contractors for the transportation of the mails on public routes. There were at the close of the year 1,653 special offices, each with a mail-carrier, whose pay from the department is not allowed to exceed the net postal yield of the office. Of public mail-routes in operation, there were 9,234, (of which 958 were railroad; being an increase of 46 routes of this class over the previous year,) aggregating in length 292,820 miles; in annual transportation, 147,353,251 miles; in annual cost, $15,384,895. Adding the compensation of railway post-office clerks, route-agents, mail-route messengers, local agents, and mail-messengers, amounting to $3,144,343, the aggregate annual cost will be $18,529,238. The service was divided as follows: Railroad-routes: length, 74,546 miles; annual transportation, 85,358,710 miles; annual cost, $9,053,936; about 10.5 cents per mile. Steamboat-routes: length, 17,685 miles; annual transportation, 4,038,238 miles; annual cost, $666,989; about 16.5 cents per mile. Other routes, upon which the mails are required to be conveyed with celerity, certainty, and security:" length, 200,589 miles; annual transportation, 57,956,303 miles; annual cost, $5,663,970; about 9.77 cents per mile. There were at the close of the year 4,098 offices supplied by mail-messengers, at an annual cost of $659,497. There was an increase over the preceding year in length of routes of 11,022 miles; in annual transportation, 11,083,543 miles; and in cost $183,755. Deducting the decrease in cost for railway post-office clerks, route, local, and other agents, $15,565, the total increase in cost was $168,190. The railroad routes have been increased in length 2,198 miles, while the cost has been decreased $489,198. This decrease is attributable to the operation of the act of July 12, 1876, reducing the compensation to all railroads for the transportation of the mails ten per centum per annum on allowances for weight of mails, and the allowance of eighty per centum per annum, after such reduction, where the railroad was constructed in whole or in part by a land-grant made by Congress. These reductions do not (under the decision of the Attorney-General) affect railroads carrying the mails under contract, except where endowed with a grant of land, nor allowances for railway post-office cars. The readjustment of pay (table F) in New England and the States of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia, for the regular contract term of four years commencing July 1, 1877, and on certain routes in other States and Territo ries, as far as complete returns have been received, shows a reduction of $2,078.17 per annum against the cost to June 30, 1877. The amount deducted under the act of July 12, 1876, is $465,851.29 per annum. Of this amount, the sum of $38,673.02 was not deducted prior to the 30th June, 1877, because of service under contract to that date. The actual result is, therefore, an increase of $36,594.82 over the cost to June 30, 1877. The cost of railroad service to June 30, 1877, was $9,053,936. The appropriation for the current fiscal year is $9,250,000. The increase in the cost of the service to June 30, 1877, was 4.67 per centum; this rate of increase applied to the $9,053,936, would make the cost for the current year $9,476,754.81. This sum is used as the basis upon which to cast the estimate for 1879, and anticipating a marked revival of business, the rate of increase is placed at 7 per centum, making the estimate for 1879 $10,140,126. Of the $260,714 given in the last annual report as the reduction under the 13th or land-grant section of the act of July 12, 1876, $51,274 has been decided by the law-officer to have been improperly deducted, and has therefore been refunded. Within a comparatively recent period many cases have been presented in which compensation is claimed under the act of March 3, 1873, as for separate and independent routes, over different railroad-tracks, for mails carried in different trains, run by one or more companies over the same track. If this course were adopted, instead of aggregating the weight of mails carried over one track, as has been the custom of the department, the cost of carrying the mails would be largely increased. And in view of this the case is presented for consideration. Under postal regulations railroad companies are required to deliver the mails to terminal offices as well as all intermediate offices located within eighty rods of the stations. It is believed that this service should be performed by the government. For some time past negotiations have been made with railroad companies to deliver mails to offices to which they were not required by the regulations to take the mails. This service has been thrown open to competition from July 1, 1877, which has resulted in an annual saving of $23,197.58 to the department. The amount of fines imposed upon contractors and deductions made from their pay for failures and other delinquencies for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1877, was $89,755.46, and the amount remitted for the same period was $25,473.32, leaving the net amount of fines and deduc. tions $64,282.14. A table (H) appended hereto exhibits, in detail, the number, description, and cost of mail-bags and mail catchers, and of mail locks and keys, purchased under contracts during the last fiscal year. The total number of new mail-bags purchased and put into service was 93,700, of which 79,000 were for the transmission of printed and third-class matter, and 14,700 were chiefly for letters. |