| Year. | Cost of Conveyance. | Percentage of Cost of Conveyance of Mails by Road and Rail to Total Revenue (excluding Cost of Conveyance of Parcels by Railway). |
|---|---|---|
| 1880-1 | £921,093 | 16.17 |
| 1890-1 | 1,273,894 | 12.62 |
| 1900-1 | 1,519,219 | 11.26 |
| 1905-6 | 1,710,891 | 10.68 |
| 1910-11 | 1,812,505 | 9.18 |
| 1913-14 | 1,940,735 | 8.85 |
[98] Assuming there is no loss on the Parcel Post. If there is such loss, the cost per packet other than a parcel would be reduced (see infra, Chapter VII).
[99] The general increase of wages partly accounts for this (see p. 34, opposite). The cost of working is, however, higher in the larger offices (where the bulk of postal work is done) than in the smaller offices, and tends to be highest in the largest offices. The matter is complicated by the fact that higher scales of pay are in force in the larger towns.
| Year. | Percentage of Total Expenditure to Total Revenue. | |
|---|---|---|
| Postal Services. | All Services. | |
| 1839-40 [A] [B] | 31.66 | — |
| 1840-41 [B] | 63.16 | — |
| 1880-1 | 61.84 | 68.97 |
| 1890-1 | 65.79 | 74.33 |
| 1900-1 | 71.75 | 80.99 |
| 1905-6 | 69.44 | 80.19 |
| 1909-10 | 73.75 | 84.00 |
| 1910-11 | 72.28 | 82.94 |
| 1911-12 | 72.36 | 82.89 |
| 1912-13 | 71.25 | 82.05 |
| 1913-14 [C] | 69.71 | 80.02 |
- A: Penny Postage introduced, 10th January 1840.
- B: Revenue does not include proceeds of Impressed Stamp on Newspapers.
- C: Estimated.
—Report of Postmaster-General, 1913-14, pp. 122-3.
[101] "The inhabitants live so scattered and remote from each other in that vast country, that posts cannot be supported among them."—Benjamin Franklin, evidence before House of Commons, 28th January, 1766 (Parl. History, vol. xvi. col. 138).
[102] The usual rate of remuneration for deputy postmasters in North America. Cf. infra, pp. [49] and [66].
[103] "On account of the scarcity of money, people will forbear to correspond until they find occasions by friends, travellers, and the like, to send their letters, which makes it to be wished that the Legislature might enact that the rate of postage for the greatest distances on the Continent of America may not exceed 1s. 6d. for a single letter and so in proportion."—British Official Records, 1764.