OCEAN TRANSPORTATION. Number of letters and amounts of postage on the mails conveyed to and from Europe by the following steamship lines: Number of letters and newspapers, and amounts of postage on the mails conveyed by United States steamships to and from the West Indies, Panama, Mexico, Brazil, Central and South America, Japan and China, &c. Table showing the increase and decrease of post offices in the several States and Territories; also the number of post offices at which appointments are made by the President and by the Postmaster General. 97 959 66 566 11 26,481 71 Ab REPORT OF THE AUDITOR. OFFICE OF THE AUDITOR OF THE TREASURY Washington, November 16, 1868. SIR: The statements and tables herewith submitted, numbered from i to 40, both inclusive, will exhibit the operations of this office for the fiscal year which ended on the 30th of June last. The receipts for the year show a satisfactory increase from those of the year preceding, rising from $15,237,026 87 in 1867, to $16,292,600 80 in 1868. The expenditures, however, have been augmented in greater propor tion, and have absorbed not only the current postal receipts of the department, but the balances of special appropriations granted by Congress for the supply of anticipated deficiencies unexpended at the close of the preceding year. The extra and additional expenses for which these special appropriations were chiefly made have been unusually large during the past year, and this special fund being exhausted, the resources of the departinent for the current year will be limited to its ordinary postal revenues, and it is apparent that these alone will be insufficient. By reference to the revenue account it will be seen in what branches of the service these increased expenditures have been incurred, and how impossible it will be to maintain the improvements and extensions recently adopted, without the aid of further appropriations. The ordinary postal revenues will be as inadequate for the support of these additional services in the future as in the past. Among the extraordinary demands upon the department may be enumerated, as per table: 1. The expense of supporting the system of free delivery of letters and newspapers in the cities and towns where it is now authorized, which additional service amounts to the sum of $995,934 59. 2. The maintenance of postal service upon the exceedingly long and expensive mail routes recently established in the new and remote States and Territories, and which has cost the department $3,849,560 68. Of this sum, but $1,014,700 26 has been reimbursed by postal receipts, leaving an excess of expenditures for this purpose of $2,834,860 42. 3. The restoration of old, and the opening of new routes in the southern and southwestern States, where the mail service was suspended during the rebellion, for which the excess of expenditures over receipts has been $1,337,000. To these principal sources of extra expenditure may be added the expense of the foreign mail service, that of railway postal clerks, and other lesser items, which make up the difference between receipts and expenditures, as shown by the tables. For the accuracy of these figures I beg to refer to tables numbered 1, 2, and 3. With these enormous burdens upon the department, it is scarcely pos sible to hope that for the present, at least, its ordinary postal receipts will defray its expenses. The money-order system continues to grow in public favor, and it is gratifying to be able to report that the accounts for the past year show it to be now entirely self-supporting. The number of orders has increased from 474,496, in 1867, to 831,937 in 1868, and the aggregate amounts transmitted from $9,229,327 72, in 1867, to $16,197,858 47, in 1868. This vast number and amount of money transfers have been transmitted not only without cost to the department, but has yielded, as will be seen by reference to the report of Mr. Lynch, having charge of that branch numbered 7, a surplus of $54,158 15, a sum more than sufficient to defray the expenses incident to its operations. The quarterly balances due from postmasters have been, with few exceptions, promptly paid upon the settlement of their accounts; and in all cases of delinquency measures are immediately taken to enforce payment from the principals or their sureties. With a constant and careful supervision over these multitudinous accounts, urging immediate payment of the balances found due from retiring postmasters; in default of payment, notifying their sureties, and, as a last resort in extreme cases, invoking the aid of the criminal law, it is believed that little loss need be sustained by the department. It is satisfactory to know that no considerable failures to honor drafts or collection orders of the department in payment of these balances have occurred during the past year. COLLECTION OF POST-OFFICE REVENUES. The number of post offices in operation during the year was 26,481, which are thus classified under the regulations adopted for the government of the department, chapter 26, sections 275 to 279, page 50. The following named offices, 66 in number, are denominated depositories, and are required by the Postmaster General to receive and retain, subject to the drafts of the department, the funds of certain adjacent offices as well as the revenues of their own. List of offices designated as depositories, with name of postmaster. Albany, New York, Joseph Davis. Bangor, Maine, George Fuller. Concord, New Hampshire, M. T. Willard. Lowell, Massachusetts, J. A. Goodwin. Portsmouth, Ohio, O. Wood. Providence, Rhode Island, E. S. Jackson. Quincy, Illinois, W. H. Benson. Ripon, Wisconsin, D. McKercher. Rochester, New York, J. W. Stebbins. Rutland, Vermont, M. G. Everts. Worcester, Massachusetts, Josiah Pickett. |