432
THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 16TH JULY, 1879.
27. Since the close of the year further payments have been made to foreign countries, increasing the total amount hitherto paid since our entry into the Union to $5,733.32. It may be interesting to know how this sum has been apportioned.
I. To Batavia, for conveyance of mails from Singapore to Batavia by Netherlands Packets, 1877,
II. To Italy, for land transport of correspondence à découvert for the Continent of Europe, 1877,
To Italy, for transport of closed mails for France, Spain, and Portugal, 1877,
III. To France, for sea and land transport of correspondence à découvert for the Continent of Europe, 1877,.
To France, for conveyance of correspondence for France, 1877,........
IV. To the United States, for conveyance of correspondence for Chili, Hawaii, and other Non-Union Countries, to April, 1878,... V. To London, for sea conveyance of the correspondence charged for under II, mails for India, &c.,-Claim not yet received,...
43.00
570.95
$15.28
3,015.28
1,708.88.
79.93
www.wwwwww.
$5,733.32
28. With regard to the delays which have arisen in settling the Union accounts, it may perhaps be permissible to append an extract from a Report already submitted to the Government (on Circular Despatch of Sir MICHAEL HICKS-BEACH, August 23rd, 1878).
"The Colonies were thrown into the intricacies of the Postal Union too suddenly for so complicated a system to work smoothly all at once. "The Metropolitan Offices in Europe were too busy to give detailed instructions on points on which they themselves had had but little experience: "The French Post Office Agents, generally au fait in every possible detail, could give no information, and only expressed their own bewilderment, "The first Statistical period may be compared to a review of raw recruits, no one of whom has any idea what he is expected to do."
*
*
D
"The second statistical Period (the results of the first having been cancelled) was a little better, but not much. "The necessary forms were mostly filled up and forwarded, but too many of the Offices to which they were sent neglected to verify and retur "them. The most anxious care was exercised in this Office to prevent omissions, and yet some few omissions occurred. Points absolutely unpro "vided for in the Treaty had to be settled as they arose, and objections have been taken to the ways in which they were settled. Some of the "accounts furnished by this Office, to the best of its information and ability, though correct as regards figures, were in a form which other Offices “would not accept. It would have been very simple for those Offices, being in possession of the results, to put them on paper ruled and headed in any way that might be desired (for that was all the question at issue), but only within the last few weeks an application has been received to “remodel and reforward them, and it is presumed the accounts must wait till they are received,”
*
*
*
*
=*
**
*
*
*
*
"It may be asked then, how long is this state of uncertainty and confusion to continue? It is hoped not much longer. The Convention of "Paris simplifies the taking of Statistics just in the details which have been found all but unworkable. The various Post Offices are of course "learning the new course of duty more and more every day.
It is believed that within a year the whole system, as "regards Hongkong, will be susceptible of the clearest financial treatment, as much as if the Postal Income and Expenditure of the Colony "were practically fixed."
I have the honour to be,
Sir.
Your obedient Servant.
ALFRED LISTER.
Postmaster General.
The Honourable W. H. MARSH.
&c.,
Colonial Secretary,
&t.
*Including a special contribution of £3,150=$16,214.47.
† In previous years these payments have been made to London on behalf of the Countries concerned. This sum is really a charge against 1877. Within the last few days only an application has been received from the London Office for statistics of transit hetween this Colony and Seychelles, for which the accounts for 1877 were waiting. No mails have been exchanged with Seychelles for some years, bence of course no such statistics had been supplied.
APPENDIX.
(A.)-COMPARATIVE RETURN OF REGISTERED CORRESPONDENCE, 1878 & 1877.
SENT.
RECEIVED.
Number Number
DESTINATION,
of Articles, 1878.
of Articles, 1877.
Increase. Decrease.
Number of Articles, 1878.
Number of Articles,
Increase. Decrease.
1877.
United Kingdom,
4,017
4,114
97
3,920
2,521
1,399
Continent of Europe,
1,270
671
599
1,690
1,084
606
Australia,
208
137
71
657
582
75
Ports of China and Japan,
1,947
1,564
383
1,999
1,431
568
Straits, India, Ceylon, &c.,
1,265
828
437
2,416
2,679
263
TOTAL,...
8,707
7,314
1,490
97
10,682
8,297
2,648
263
NET INCREASE,.
1,398
2,385