In the Postmaster-General's report for 1908 reference is made to the demand during 1907 for sixpenny orders in connection with “Limerick” competitions. The Postmaster-General is never flippant, nor does he feel bound as the head of a big business to deprecate this particular form of gambling: indeed there is almost a note of jubilation in the way he records an advance in the sales of Postal Orders of 23,000,000, largely due, as he says, to the competitions. And in his report for 1909 there is just a shade of disappointment in his manner of stating that the falling off in the sale of Orders, amounting to more than 10,000,000, is due to the passing away of the “Limerick” competitions. Both in the Money Order and Postal Order Departments a great deal of the seamy side of our social life is revealed. Considerable numbers of Money Orders are sent to various lottery agents abroad, not a few go to firms of horse-racing bookmakers. Sometimes the public is unreasonable; it is curious how inquiries about money are usually expressed angrily and suspiciously. A payee was asked for full particulars of his Order, merely in order to trace it and help him to his lost property. His reply was on a postcard: “Why this humbug? I want my money.” One man had sent an Order to purchase a performing dog, but wanted his money back, because “the dog that played tricks was a fraud, and could no more sham death than a dying duck in a thunderstorm could sing the National Anthem.” There was a twist in the man's mind which somehow led him to associate the Post Office with the dog having been palmed off on him. A small boy altered the amount on an Order, and on being found out wrote up to the Secretary, “I am a Sunday School scholar, and have been to Sunday School all the days of my life,” and he wound up with, “O Lord, forgive me.” The father undertook to administer the cane to the young scholar, and the Secretary did not pursue the matter. In spite of the huge number of posted Orders which are issued, a small percentage only go astray. Extra commission is charged on Orders not presented within a given time, and there are often cases when on an Order being presented it is found that this extra commission amounts to more than the value of the Order. In every recorded instance of this sort the payee has preferred to retain the Order! People have sometimes inadvertently thrown Orders on the fire, and have then collected the ashes in a little tin box, which they have sent to the Department as a guarantee of their good faith, and not with any hope that the Order can be identified from the ashes. Applications have even been received respecting Orders which have accidentally been “sent to the wash,” but the cleansing process has not been successful enough to obliterate the printing, and the Order can be cashed.