If an account published in the Times of Friday is
correct, the Post-Office Money-Order system is unexpectedly unprofitable. In 1873 no less than £21,630,000 was remitted through the Post Office, and a commission of 1 per cent. was paid upon it all, yet that enormous business scarcely yielded any profit, and probably produced a loss. The Post Office is now accumulating the " unclaimed " money, apparently to form a sort of guarantee fund for itself. The Times suggests that there is loss on Colonial orders, as we receive orders from the Colonies to pay about £500,000 a year, and only give orders for about £80,000, the difference of commission going to Colonial post-offices, and inquires how the English offices with no money meet the drafts on them. Are the Government compelled to be perpetually sending about money, or is the clerk-work really in excess of the profit received? It is very difficult to believe that a private banking firm would not contrive somehow to make a profit out of an overturn of £21,000,000 a year.
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