SUPPLEMENT TO THE HONGKONG GOVTM GAZETTE OF 28т JAN., 1888. 107 with 325 parcels, and has sold Postal Notes to the amount of $1,312. He has dealt, without any assistance except that of two Chinese who cannot read English, with over 200,000 articles of ordinary correspondence, say 550 per day, Sundays included. His Office is the point of distribution for Tamsui, Kelung, Taiwanfoo, and Takao, the service of which places involves much correspondence and attention to detail. It can scarcely be thought that $40 a month is a sufficient salary to pay a gentleman, who has other duties to attend to, for the amount of work, responsibility, watchfulness, and care, involved in keeping up such an Office as is described above All through the year, we have been continually on the verge of a deadlock at Amoy caused by the not unnatural reluctance of officers of the Consular service to undertake a post the work of which is out of proportion to the pay. Only by the good offices of H. M. Consul in prevailing on members of his staff to take the duties as a personal favour to himself has such a deadlock been prevented. If the Amoy Office continues to be worked from Hongkong it is hoped that its complete reorganisation will be allowed.
29. Arrangements were made, during the year under report, to induce a more general prepayment of the correspondence which it is the custom to send here by steamers outside the mails. The measures taken were necessarily of a stringent kind, but it was intended to relax them as soon as the end in view was attained. This was accomplished before the setting in of the inevitable outery, which had been all along foreseen by this Department; and the sending of unpaid letters on board steamers was practically put a stop to, and less stringent rules introduced, before any complaint was made. This Office, at any rate, is no longer periodically flooded with unpaid correspondence, nor will the wholesale transmission of such unpaid correspondence through the Post be allowed to be resumed.
I have the honour to be,
The Hon. FREDERICK STEWART,
Colonial Secretary,
&C.,
&C.,
&c.
Sir,
Your obedient Servant,
APPENDIX.
APPROXIMATE STATISTICS FOR THE YEAR 1887.
A. LISTER, Postmaster General.
INTERNATIONAL.
LOCAL.
COMPARISON WITH 1886.
DESCRIPTION OF CORRESPONDENCE.
TOTAL.
De- spatched.
Received.
De- spatched.
Received.
Total in 1886.
Increase.
Decrease.
Ordinary paid letters,
571,000
428,000 65,000 56,000
1,120,000 | 1,095,000
25.000
Unpaid and short paid Articles,
10,000 23.000
2,000
5,000
Letters on Postal Business,...
Post Cards,...
1,200 5,000
7,000
1.800
1,200
14,000 46,000
4,400
6,000
4,000
3,000
3,000
1,500
12,500
9,900
400 2,600
Do. with prepaid reply,
Newspapers and Periodicals,
126,000 258,000 37.000
16,000
437,000 412,000
25.000
Books, Circulars, Prices Current, &c..
210,000
87,000
15,000
11,500
Patterns, ...
5,000
2,000
1,000
500
323.500 9,500
304,100
19,400
8,000
1.500
Commercial Papers,
Registered Articles,
23,000
32,000
3.700
3,800 62,500
58.900
3,600
Letters with value declared,
Registered Articles with Return Receipt,
300
5,000
Parcels,
100 1,000
100 1,200
5.500
4.500
1.000
8.506
Printed and published by NORONHA & Co., Printers to the longkong Government, Nos. 5, 7, and 9, Zetland Street.