104 SUPPLEMENT TO THE HONGKONG GOV GAZETTE OF 28TH JAN., 1888.
1875 brought ten or twelve half-empty bags of correspondence, now bring from ninety to a hundred In 1875 full ones, our largest inward mail in fact, which, unfortunately, necessarily arrives unsorted. we had Money Order relations only with the United Kingdom, and the duties were attended to by a clerk who was expected to perform his full share of ordinary Postal work as well. Now we exchange Money Orders with nearly all the world, and the duties are discharged, with daily increasing difficulty, only by the continuous attention of two clerks, who have to be detached from all other duties. Parcel Post has been introduced within the last two years, and, whilst it is most useful and successful, it forms a serious addition to the general work of the Office, and to the daily demand for more space. The total number of letters, papers, &c. passing through the Hongkong Post Office in 1875 probably fell short of 900,000. The total for 1887 is estimated at 2,200,000. The work of the Department is only got through, and that with extreme pressure and difficulty, by long and severe hours of duty, by excessively hard work, and by the superior officers joining in manual labour which, in most other places, would be performed by men at twenty-five shillings a week.
6 But it is when the Chinese Staff of the Office is considered that it is seen how completely inadequate is the provision of hands, in comparison with the work to be done. In the Local or Municipal Post Office of Shanghai, which undertakes nothing but the reception and distribution of local correspondence, and of that exchanged by steamer with certain Ports immediately corresponding with Shanghai, the work is carried on by the following Chinese staff under the superintendence of two Europeans:-
3 Senior Chinese.
17 Postmen and Coolies.
2 Rickshaw Coolies. 4 Boatmen
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The Municipal Post Office at Shanghai is one of seven Post Offices by which the correspondence of that Settlement is dealt with, and it is furnished with twenty-six Chinese. The Hongkong Post Office does the whole of the Postal work of Hongkong, inward, outward, and local; prepares and passes on the mails for all China and Japan; acts as a centre between those countries and the Straits, India, America and Australia; sorts both the English and French mails for Shanghai; and is furnished with twenty Chinese. The amount of correspondence passing through Shanghai may be taken, with fair accuracy, to be about half of that passing through Hongkong. The whole l'ostal work of Shanghai is performed by 13 Europeans and 48 Chinese, that of Hongkong by 17 Europeans and 20 Chinese. Moreover the only two really heavy mails for Shanghai are sorted in Hongkong.
7. The Municipal Post Office at Shanghai can, naturally, establish hourly deliveries, and effect them with great regularity and satisfaction to the public. The Hongkong Post Office effects with difficulty three deliveries a day, with an extra delivery after dark when necessary; and, when there is a rush of either inward or outward mail work, delivery has to be suspended altogether, the services of the postmen who should go out with correspondence being indispensable indoors.
S. The directions in which the organisation of the Hongkong Office should now be developed are these:
(a.) The improvement of local delivery.
(b.) The collection of correspondence from steamers, and a quicker landing of contract
mails, by means of a steam-launch belonging to the Department.
(c.) An enforcement of the monopoly of the Post Office with regard to outward corres-
pondence, more particularly Chinese.
The third of these has been waiting for time and opportunity, but the other two are absolutely de- pendent on the provision of a larger building. Local delivery cannot be improved without a Chinese staff at least double of what we have at present. There is not room in this building for a single additional Chinese. Instead of adding to the existing overcrowding, it should be abated. And it is worse than useless to collect correspondence from steamers unless there are the means of delivering it at least as quickly as the steamer agents can deliver it themselves. Similarly, this Department could not work a steam-launch to advantage without two Europeans to relieve each other in the duty of boarding vessels on arrival. They would have to live on the premises, for which no ingenuity could arrange in the present building. In fact almost every attempt to improve the service in any way is blocked by the same condition, more room.
9. To fully develope the internal Postal service of this Colony there will be needed ere long four small sub-offices, viz., one at the east and one at the west end of the town, one at Kowloon and one at the Peak. Pillar boxes will also have to be established at convenient spots on the routes leading to these suburbs. All this would pay its own expenses and more, but it is useless to attempt it without a suflicient central staff to receive and distribute the correspondence.