434    POST OFFICES.

save the various Fire Insurance Companies from loss caused by such
fires as occurred in Chicago and Boston.

Life Insurance Companies. The number of life insurance com-
panies licensed to do business in New-Hampshire, is thirty-two.
They have grown to large proportions in this State, and are con-
stantly increasing through the heavy outlay in advertising, and
the untiring zeal of their agents.

The whole number of life polices, now in force in this State, is
10,000; amount of risks, $ 14,754,725 ; amount of premiums receiv-
ed, for the year 1872, $703,510.37; amount paid on losses and en-
dowments, $161,123.71, leaving a balance of $542,386.66. The
expense of agents with their clerks, is about $54,000, annually, which
makes the large sum of nearly $ 500,000 that is sent out of the
State, more than what is received through loss of life, and interest
on premiums. The amount of money which is sent out of the State
annually, through fire and life insurance business, is over $ 600,000
more than what is received from fire and life risks. This allows
over $100,000 for expenses to manage the business in this State
alone. This large amount of money would pay the annual interest-
on the whole State debt, and defray the expenses of the State gov-
ernment every year.

It is to be hoped that the people of this State will look at this
question candidly, and establish and sustain institutions of this char-
acter belonging to their own State, and retain this vast amount of
money at home. No one doubts the practical benefit of both of
these institutions, and their necessity, but we are loth to believe
there is any need of annually sending out of the State, $ 600,000
more money than is received, to secure the blessings of these insti-
tutions, which can be sustained in our own State, through the effi-
cient agents now working for these foreign Companies.

NAMES OF ALL THE POST OFFICES IN NEW-HAMPSHIRE,

TOGETHER WITH LAWS REGULATING MATTER SENT BY

MAIL.

New-Hampshire is one of the nine States, in which the receipts
exceed the expenditures, the balance being $ 32,500.39, in favor of
the State, in 1872.

The length of mail route, is 1,828 miles, of which one hundred
and eight miles is by Steamboat, and five hundred and forty by