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THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 2281 MARCH, 1884.
Declarations.
Postminster General solely authorised to Previve and de- liver all cor respondence.
Letters ex-
cepted under Acts of Impe- rial Parlia- ment.
Receipt of postage, and accounts.
Governor in Council may
fix rates of postage.
+
Orders to he published by Proclamation,
The Posimas- ter General Most Pasku regulations.
Decision as to newspapersty packets, &c.
5. No person appointed alter the passing of this Ordin- ance shall be capable of holding the offer of Postmaster General, or Assistant Postmaster General, or Postmaster, or Agent, unless he shall have first made and subseribed before a Justice of the Peace, or one of Her Britannic Ma- jesty's Consuls, the declaration contained in the sebedule 4 hereto amnexed, and no person'appointed after the passing of this Ordinence shall be capable of being a clerk, servuat, or officer of the Post Office, unless he shall have first muide and subscribed in like manner the declaration contained in the schedule B hereto annexed.
6. The Postmaster General shall, by himself or his de- puties, have the entire charge of the General Post Office and of all postal matters within the Colony, with sole power, within the Colony, of receiving from all persons anthorised to deliver the same all letter bags and corres- pondence arriving in the Colony; and with sole power, within the Colony, of collecting, receiving, and delivering to all persons authorised to receive the same all correspond- ence for transmission by or through the General Post Office to places out of the Colony.
The said Postmaster General shall also have the exclusive privilege, within the Colony, of performing all the incidental services of receiving, collecting, despatching and delivering all correspondence arriving from, or transmitted to any place out of the Colony; and no letters, unless exempt by law, shall be delivered in, or transmitted from the Colony otherwise than by or through the General Post Office.
7. All correspondence which, by any Act of the Imperial Parliament, is excepted from the exclusive privilege of the Imperial Post Office, shall within this Colony be excepted from the exclusive privilege of the Postmaster General of the Colony.
8. The Postmaster General shall receive all postage payable in the Colony and shall keep accounts of all cor- respondence received and despatched by him, with the particulars of the Postage thereof, in sich manner and form as the Governor may, from time to time, direet: Provided that the accounts of monies payable to the Imperial Postmaster General be kept distinct from the accounts of monies payable to the Colonial Treasury.
The Postmaster General shall keep the accounts of monies payable to the Imperial Postmaster General in such form and shall transmit such monies in such manner as the said Imperial Postmaster General may, from time to time, direct.
9. The Governor in Council may, from to time by order determine the rates of postage to be charged upon all cor- respondence sent by post from the General Post Office of the Colony, or received therein from places outside the Colony, and may revoke, alter, or add to any such order, provided that no such order be inconsistent with any Postal Treaty to which this Colony may be a party.
10. The Governor shall publish every such order by Proclamation in the Gazette; and every order, when so published, shall have the same effect as if it had been inserted in this Ordinance. All such Orders in Conneil in foree at the time of passing of this Ordinance are hereby continued in force until duly revoked or altered by the Governor in Council,
11. The Postmaster General may, subject to such Treaty as aforesaid, from time to time, make, alter, and repeal, in relation to correspondence sent by post, such regulations as he thinks fit for regulating times and modes of posting and delivery, prepayment, late fees, fines on unpaid correspondence, the registry of correspondence, money orders, the sale and aflixing of postage stamps, the dimensions, weight, and contents of packets, and other such similar regulations as the Postmaster General from time to time thinks necessary for the better execution of this Ordinance.
All such regulations as affect the public shall be published in the Gazette, or in the Postal Guide published by the Postmaster General, and shall have no effect until so published.
12. If a question arises whether any article or cor- respondence is a letter, or whether any publication is a newspaper or a supplement, or, whether any packet is a book packet or pattern or sample packet, within the meaning of this Ordinance, or of any order in Council, or