48
SUPPLEMENT TO THE HONGKONG GOVT GAZETTE OF 15TH JAN., 1887.
23. How China may elect to develop her Postal system is not in any special way the affair of Hongkong, but a single remark on the subject may perhaps be allowable. To demand that so huge an Empire shall be covered with a network of courier services organised by the Imperial Government before that Government may attempt the much more modest task of carrying on the small coast service at present conducted by this Colony, is, as one of the speakers at Shanghai graphically put it, like insisting that a boy shall not go near the water till he has learned to swim. Any successful postal system in China must begin from the coast, and with steamer communication. It may then possibly be pushed up the rivers as steamers are admitted to them, and extended to a few of the shorter land routes, especially as railways are introduced. To make haste slowly should be the motto, and the avoidance of huge schemes like a pestilence the policy of the Chinese Post Office of the immediate future.
24. Should the proposal of the Chinese Government not be accepted, it will be absolutely necessary to improve our Postal Agencies. They cannot be left as they are. On the other hand, no suggestion to open additional agencies at the expense of this Government should be entertained.
25. The time has perhaps arrived when something should be done to bring the Chinese correspon- dence transmitted to and from this Colony more under control. There can be no doubt that the revenue suffers serious loss from the smuggling of thousands of Chinese letters, not to Chinese ports where there is no national Post Office to receive them, but to San Francisco, Australia, the Straits Settlements, and other places where efficient Post Offices exist. The subject is surrounded with difficulties, and the sweeping measures so often advocated, besides being ruinously expensive, would make the Postal Department here a nuisance and a hindrance to trade which would not be tolerated for a week. The function of a Post Office is to facilitate, not to hinder business. Proposals of a practical nature have, as you are aware, been submitted to the Government in this matter, and they are at present under consideration.
The Honourable F. STEWART,
Acting Colonial Secretary,
&C.
&c.
&c.
APPENDIX.
I have the honour to be,*
Sir,
Your obedient Servant,
(A.)—APPROXIMATE STATISTICS FOR THE YEAR 1886.
Supplied to the International Bureau of the Postal Union, Berne.
A. LISTER, Postmaster General.
INTERNATIONAL.
LOCAL.
COMPARISON WITH 1885.
DESCRIPTION OF CORRESPONDENCE,
TOTAL.
De-
De-
Received,
Received.
spatched.
spatched.
Total in 1885.
Increase. Decrease.
Ordinary paid letters,
538,500 403,700 61,100
Unpaid and short paid Articles,
9,600
22,300
2,400
52,600 | 1,055,900 | 1,095,000 15,800 50,100
*
39,100
46,000
4,100
Letters on Postal Business,
1.100
600
1,200
1,100
4,000
4,350
Post Cards,
1.300
2,500
2,100
1,000
9,900
13,000
Do. with prepaid reply,
Newspapers and Periodicals,,
118,700
243.200
35,100
15,000 412,000 510,000
Books, Circulars, Prices Current, &c.,
197.300
8 2,000
14,000
10,800
304,100 410,000
Patterns,
4,800
2,900
300
8,000 16,160
350 3,100
* 98,000 * 105,900.
8,160
Commercial Papers,
་་་
Registered Articles,
21,700
30.300*
3,400
3,500
58,900
57,874
1,026
Letters with value declared,
Registered Articles with Return Receipt,
Parcels,
200 3,136
4,200 3,516
50
50
4,500
2,262
2,238
966
888
8,506
1,570
6,936
* The figures in the above table are obtained by multiplying the amount of correspondence forwarded during 28 days by 13. The results are very fortuitous and these decrcases are probably more apparent than real. The sale of postage stamps, a much more satisfactory test, shows a steady increase.