The report of the Postmaster-General presents a most satisfactory
condition of the postal service and submits recommendations which
deserve the consideration of Congress. The revenues of the Department
for the year ending June 30, 1866, were $14,386,986 and the expenditures
$15,352,079, showing an excess of the latter of $965,093. In
anticipation of this deficiency, however, a special appropriation was
made by Congress in the act approved July 28, 1866. Including the
standing appropriation of $700,000 for free mail matter as a legitimate
portion of the revenues, yet remaining unexpended, the actual deficiency
for the past year is only $265,093--a sum within $51,141 of the amount
estimated in the annual report of 1864. The decrease of revenue compared
with the previous year was 1-1/5 per cent, and the increase of
expenditures, owing principally to the enlargement of the mail service
in the South, was 12 per cent. On the 30th of June last there were in
operation 6,930 mail routes, with an aggregate length of 180,921 miles,
an aggregate annual transportation of 71,837,914 miles, and an aggregate
annual cost, including all expenditures, of $8,410,184.
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