eeding 2 ounces, was then introduced. This method of
effecting a reduction was dictated largely by a desire to simplify the
rates of postage. It admitted of the abolition of the Sample Post, and
of the Book Post (except as regards packets not exceeding 2 ounces in
weight), and thus removed a source of confusion and loss of time both to
the staff and the public.

In recent years postal traffic of all kinds has increased rapidly. The
growth in numbers is shown by the following table:--

-----------+-----------------------
| Total number of Postal
Year. | Packets dealt with in
| the United Kingdom.
-----------+-----------------------
1880-1 | 1,682,000,000
1890-1 | 2,623,988,000
1900-1 | 3,723,817,000
1905-6 | 4,686,182,000
1910-11 | 5,281,102,000
1913-14 | 5,920,821,000[91]
-----------+-----------------------

The ordinary letter, however, remains the characteristic of Post Office
business and the sheet-anchor of postal finance. The vast proportion in
point of numbers still consists of packets of small weight.[92] In
1913-14, of a total traffic of some six thousand million packets
(including parcels), nearly three thousand five hundred millions passed
at the letter rate of postage (less than 14 per cent. of which exceeded
1 ounce in weight), one thousand millions at the postcard rate, another
thousand millions at the 1/2d. packet rate (none exceeding 2 ounces in
weight). The average weight of the two hundred million newspapers was
just over 4 ounces, and of the hundred and thirty million parcels, some
2 to 3 pounds. Of the total traffic (including parcels), more than four
thousand millions, consisting in general of ordinary letters and
postcards, were under 1 ounce in weight; and of the remaining two
thousand millions (including parcels) only some five hundred millions
exceeded 4 ounces in weight.

The Post Office, in addition to its ordinary function of providing for
the transmission of letters and packets, undertakes a number of
subsidiary services. There are, of course, the telegraphs and
telephones, the money order, postal order, and Savings Bank business,
which have for many years been an integral part of the business of the
Post Office. In recent years the Post Office has also undertaken the
issue of certain local taxation licenses, and the payment of Old Age
Pensions and Army Pensions. Now it has undertaken the sale of War Loan
Stock