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HONGKONG POSTAL GUIDE
PRIVATE BOXES.
9.-Private boxes may be rented in the General Post Office, Hongkong, and in the Post Office Shanghai. The fee is $10 a year, payable in advance.
10.-Each boxholder is supplied with an account book free, but must himself provide at least two stout bags (Shanghai firms require four), marked with his name in English and Chinese on both sides. Chinese nankin makes the best bags for this purpose. They should be without strings, but have a couple of iron rings at the mouth for suspending. Boxholders should insist on their coolies returning these bags to the Post Office as soon as emptied, or at any rate not later than next morning. The only safe way to empty a bag is to turn it inside out.
11. Each boxholder's coolie must be provided with a stout ticket or badge of wood, metal, or pasteboard, bearing his employer's name in English and Chinese. This will enable him to obtain letters whenever a mail arrives.
12. The advantages of renting a box are many. It secures a quicker and more accurate delivery of correspondence. Unpaid letters are delivered to boxholders with- out the delay of demanding payment, change, &c., as they are charged to his account. The boxholders of Hongkong and Shanghai send bags down in the mail steamer to be filled-Hongkong correspondence by the marine officer.--Shanghai correspondence at the General Post Office, Hongkong. Boxholders are allowed to post their letters in sealed boxes* and to mark their Postage Stamps. They receive free copies of all notices issued by the Post Office, Tables of Rates, &c. Many inconveniences are saved to them by the facility for charging their accounts with small deficiencies of postage when there is no time to return a short-paid letter. This, however, is only done as an exception when the letter cannot go on unpaid, no boxholder being allowed to make a practice of sending short-paid correspondence or letters to be stamped. Boxholders are also allowed certain privileges as to posting local correspondênce unstamped (see paragraph 59).
13.-Boxholders' books are sent out for settlement on the first day of each month, and should be returned promptly. As a general rule no information can be given as to the correspondence charged in these accounts, where it came from, &c. There is only one way to obtain such information, and that is to file the covers of all unpaid corres- pondence received. Entries On Board are for unpaid correspondence dealt with by the marine officer on his way up from Singapore.
POSTAGE STAMPS.
14.-Hongkong Postage Stamps of the following values can be purchased and are available at any British Post Office or Agency in Hongkong or China:-
2 cents.
4
5
""
""
10
""
12
20
30 cents. 50
1 dollar.
2 dollars.
3
5
""
Post Cards-
1 cent.
2 cents(with reply paid).
4 cents.
8 cents (with reply paid).
15.--Boxholders are at liberty to mark their Postage Stamps on the back or face or by perforation, so as to prevent their being stolen. If the mark be on the face, it must be such as not to interfere with the clean appearance of the stamps.
16.-Correspondence will not be stamped at the Post Office and charged to a boxholder's account, except as provided by paragraph 59.
DESPATCH.
17.-Tables showing the dates of the departure of the contract mails and the dates when replies to letters are due in Hongkong are published separately. The dates and hours of closing all mails in the General Post Office are also published twice daily in a Special Mail Notice, except on Sundays and Holidays.
18. As a general rule the Mails for Europe by English and French Contract Packets are closed as follows when the steamer leaves at noon, viz:---
Circulars
Registration Papers
Registration with Late Fee of 10 cents Letters
8 a.m.
10 a.m.
..10.30 à.m. .10.45 a.m. 11 a.m.
Late Letters with Late Fee of 10 cents. 11.10 a.m. to 11.30 a.m.
* The boxes should be closed with some recognizable seal. Locked boxes cannot be allowed. A receipt book should be sent with each box, but as the receiving officer cannot undertake to count the correspondence sent he only gives a receipt for One Box. No attention is promised to anything written in the book-To be "Registered for instance
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