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LOST REMITTANCES.

Two cases of alleged lost remittances, amounting to $4, were incomplete at the close of the fiscal year ended June 30, 1884, and during the following year 138 cases, involving $11,550.75, were reported to this office. Of these 16 occurred during the preceding year, but were not reported until after it had expired.

The money inclosed in 20 remittances, aggregating $1,713.33, was rerecovered, and the remaining 120 cases, of the value of $9,841.42, were, in accordance with the practice of the Department, referred to the Assistant Attorney-General for the Post-Office Department for his consideration, under the provisions of the act of Congress approved March 17, 1882, which authorizes the Postmaster-General to adjudicate claims for losses of this character. A detailed tabular statement of these cases, marked C, will be found in the appendix.

ERRONEOUS PAYMENTS OF MONEY ORDERS.

The total number of erroneous payments alleged to have been made during the year was 53, or in the ratio of 1 to every 145,527 money orders paid.

Included in the statement D, in the appendix, are 138 cases, amounting together to $3,532.46. Of these, 44, of the value of $1,201.82, awaited action at the close of the year ended June 30, 1884, while others, to the number of 40, arose before the period covered by this report, but were not reported to the Post-Office Department until after July 1, 1884.

Reference to the table shows that the sum of $329.56 (in 16 remittances) was recovered through the efforts of post-office inspectors and turned over to the owners; that 11 orders, of the value of $179.70, were found upon investigation to have been correctly paid in the first instance; that in 59 cases, involving $1,223.56, the paying postmasters were held responsible, wrong payment having resulted through lack of necessary precaution on their part; that this Department assumed payment of the losses in 19 cases, amounting to $883.56, where culpable negligence was not proved on the part of postmasters, remitters, or payees; that half the amount in one case ($5) was charged to the payee of the order; and that on June 30, 1885, there were 32 unfinished cases, aggregating $911.08.

REVENUES AND EXPENSES.

The statement of the receipts and expenses of the domestic moneyorder system for the last fiscal year, as furnished by the Auditor for this Department, is as follows:

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"Commissions" and "clerk hire" are, by law, allowed at the same rates; the latter at first-class offices only, in the form of a fixed annual allowance, which is readjusted from time to time as the business increases or diminishes; the former at all other money-order offices, quarterly, as they accrue.

The "incidental expenses" above mentioned include, besides the amount paid for stationery, money-order stamps, &c., for use in postoffices, the cost of all blanks, blank-books, and printing used by postmasters and by this office during the year in the conduct of money-order business, amounting to $36,385.12 on domestic account, of which the sum of $8,532.26 was for work ordered during the preceding year.

The total cost of books and blanks for both domestic and international money-order business was $40,811.85, and of this amount the sum of $9,478.84 was paid on account of requisitions made prior to July 1, 1884. So much of this expense as relates solely to international moneyorder business has been charged, in proper proportion, according to the volume of transactions, against the various international systems. The Auditor reports that the receipts and expenses of the postal-note business were as follows:

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On July 1, 1884, an exchange of money-orders began with Queensland and the Cape Colony; on October 1, 1884, with the Windward Islands, and on April 1, 1885, with Sweden. A similar exchange with the Empire of Japan commenced on the 1st of the present month. Copies of the conventions duly concluded between the United States, on the one hand, and Queensland, the Cape Colony, and the Windward Islands, respectively, on the other, were published in my last annual report. In the Appendix hereto will be found copies of the respective conventions with Sweden and Japan.

On June 30, 1885, there were 1,559 money order offices authorized to ssue and to pay international money-orders.

STATISTICS OF THE INTERNATIONAL MONEY-ORDER BUSINESS.

The following tabular statements show the number and value of the money-order transactions of the past year with each of nineteen foreign countries, and contain a comparison of the year's business with that of the preceding year.

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* Decrease.-Each amount not marked with an asterisk represents an increase.
Hawaiian exchange did not go into operation until January 1, 1884.
Queensland exchange did not go into operation until July 1, 1884.
Cape Colony exchange did not go into operation until July 1, 1884.
Windward Islands exchange did not go into operation until October 1, 1884.
Swedish exchange did not go into operation until April 1, 1885.

Year.

Domestic money-orders issued

1878-'79.

1879-'80.

1880-'81

1881-'82

1882-'83.

1883-'84.

1884-'85.

Perhaps one of the best indications of the stringency and general business depression of the times is the decrease in the amount of money transmitted by means of money-orders during the past fiscal year. The decrease in the amount of international money-orders issued points to the conclusion that the foreign-born workman, who habitually remits a portion of his surplus earnings to needy relatives in his native country, has found it more difficult of late to accumulate small savings. appended table will be found of interest in this connection:

The

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Amount of fees received.

Canadian, British, German, Swiss, and Italian money-orders issued in the United States.

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The revenues which accrued from the international money-order business with the several foreign countries above mentioned are reported by the Auditor as follows:

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Altogether there were issued during the past fiscal year money-orders (domestic and international) and postal notes to the number of 13,233,101, amounting to $134,695,554.11, and the payments and repayments numbered 12,929,387, of the value of $132,009,812.24. The fees received aggregated $1,217,375.98.

Section 4050, Revised Statutes of the United States, provides that the "Postmaster-General shall cause to be placed to the credit of the Treasurer of the United States, for the service of the Post-Office Department, the net proceeds of the money-order business." In pursuance of this provision of law, the sum of $408,933.20, the total revenue as reported by the Auditor, was deposited with the assistant treasurer at New York City on October 21, 1885.

There are, however, certain expenses of the money-order system which are annually defrayed from appropriations made by Congress, and are

not charged against the system in the accounts of the Department. For the past year these items of expense were as follows:

Salaries to 49 employés in the Superintendent's office

Salaries to the employés in the money-order division of the Auditor's office.
Stationery furnished for use in the Superintendent's office (estimated) ...
Books, blanks, printing, and stationery furnished for use in the money-
order division of the Auditor's office

$63, 280 00 192, 440 29

500 00

Rent of the money-order building..

Salaries of employés in the money-order building under the supervision of the superintendent of the Post-Office Department building

9,289 16

9,880 00

8,000 00

2,000 00

285,389 45

Estimated cost of furniture and miscellaneous expenses of same.

Total......

Deducting this sum from the reported revenue there yet remains a net profit from the money-order and postal note business of $123,543.75. In my report of last year I recommended that the fee for domestic money-orders not exceeding $5 be reduced from 8 cents to 5 cents, and it was shown that such a reduction, if it had been in force during the fiscal year 1883-'84, would have occasioned a probable loss of $84,390.42, a loss which, it was estimated at that time, the revenues of the system could afford. The total revenue from domestic money-order business for that year was $247,875.59, and the expenses paid from appropriations amounted to $240,741.88, leaving a net balance of profit of $7,133.71. But a considerable part of the last-mentioned expenses is chargeable to international money-order business and to postal-note business; how much, it is not practicable to determine exactly, because the work of the several systems is so intermingled that the precise cost of each, so far as concerns these items, cannot be ascertained. It was thought, however, that, after deducting from the domestic revenue the proper proportion of expenses paid from appropriations for domestic business alone, enough would remain to warrant the reduction of fee recommended.

This recommendation was not acted upon at the last session of Congress, and I do not now deem it expedient to renew it, for the following

reasons:

(1) As shown above, the domestic revenue, on account of the diminution of business, has decreased from $247,875.59 for 1883-84 to $243,974.97 for 1884-'85, a falling off of..

(2) The expenses paid from appropriations last year exceeded the similar expenses of the previous year by..

(3) Because of the leasing of an additional building for the use of the
Money-Order Service, rendered necessary chiefly for the accommo-
dation of the money-order division of the Auditor's Office, increased
expenses will be incurred during the current year, amounting-
For rent, to.....

For watchmen, laborers, incidental and miscellaneous expenses,
&c......

Total increased expense..

$3,900 62

*44, 647 57

4,500 00

8,100 00

61, 148 19

While, as estimated, the revenues for 1883-84 would have borne, without loss to the system, a reduction of $84,390.42, I do not believe that, in the present condition of business, the above mentioned increased expenses could be provided for with a reduced fee on small domestic money-orders.

*Of this increased expense the larger portion, viz, $40,880.29, was incurred in the Auditor's Office, by reason of the employment of additional clerical force for that office.

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