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HONGKONG POSTAL GUIDE
(4.) The granting of such certificate affords the public an assurance that letters and other articles entrusted to servants and messengers for posting have actually been posted, but implies no responsibility on the part of the Post Office if such articles be lost or damaged in transit.
Miscellaneous
116.-Addresses on all classes of correspondence should be plainly written in English or French, otherwise they are liable to delay while the addresses are being translated. This applies more particularly to Russia.
117.-Hongkong Postage stamps overprinted "China" are not available for payment of postage on correspondence posted in Hongkong.
118.-It is no part of the duties of the Post Office to affix stamps to correspondence or to see that servants purchase or affix the proper amounts, nor can the officers of the Department, under any circumstances, undertake to do this.
119. Correspondence for Afghanistan should bear the sender's name on the cover to avoid detention by the Ameer's agent at Peshawur. H.K. Postage Stamps are valid for the payment of postage as far as the Indian frontier only for the transit thence to destination additional postage is payable to the Afghan authorities.
120.—Any article of correspondence duly prepaid and posted becomes the property of the addressee, and cannot be returned to the sender, nor can it be detained, without the written authority of the Governor of Hongkong on an application stating fully the reasons for the request. The fee payable is $1, which must be prepaid in stamp affixed. to the Warrant for the return of the correspondence.
121.-Postal Officials are not bound to make search for any article of correspondence once posted, but may do so exceptionally and when the search does not involve delay to the out-going mail. The fee payable is 10 cents for each article searched for, which must be prepaid by means of a postage stainp affixed to the request of the sender.
122.-Postal officials are not bound to give change, nor are they authorised to demand it; and when money is paid at a Post Office, whether as change or otherwise no question as to its right amount, goodness, or weight can be entertained after it has been removed froin the counter.
123.-Postal officials are not bound to weigh for the public, letters, books, packets or newspapers brought for the post, but they may do so if their duty be not thereby impeded. This rule does not apply to parcels, which are tested both as to weight and size before being accepted.
124.-No information can be given respecting letters or any other postal packets except to the persons to whom they are addressed, and in no other way is official information of a private character allowed to be made public.
125.-The Post Office is not legally liable for any loss or inconvenience which may arise from the damage, delay, non-delivery, mis-sending, or mis-delivery of any letter or other postal packet, but liability for actual loss or damage is accepted on certain condi- tions in the case of parcels and registered packets.
126.-All complaints should be addressed to the Postmaster-General, and if marked "On Postal Business" will be forwarded free. The cover of any correspondence about which complaint is made should if possible be forwarded with such complaint. When correspondence has been mis-sent or delayed (both of which are liable to happen occa- sionally), all that the complainant need do is to write on the cover, Sent to. Delivered at............or Not received till...
or as the case may be, and forward it, without any note or letter whatever, to the Postmaster-General. Attention to this would save much writing and needless trouble.
127.-As full information regarding articles that can and that can not be sent by Post is published, under the proper heads, in the "Postal Guide," no application will be entertained for the refund of the value of postage stamps on correspondence which is dis- covered, after the postage labels have been obliterated, to contain any prohibited article, or which exceeds the limit of weight, or which for any other reason cannot be for warded and has consequently to be returned to the sender, and any loss resulting from a non-observance of the Rules by the sender of an article must be borne by him.
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