THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 21ST MARCH, 1874.
2. The Low Light.
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The illuminating apparatus is Dioptric of the Fourth Order, shewing a fixed red light visible between the magnetic bearings taken from seaward of N. 341° E. and N. 50° E., so as to assist mariners in keeping clear of the White and Boat Rocks.
The Light, which is exhibited from a window in a building, painted white, erected on the southern slope of the island, is elevated 55 feet above the level of the sea, and, in clear weather, it should be visible from a distance of 7 nautical miles.
By order of the Inspector General of Customs,
ENGINEERS' OFFICE, CUSTOM HOUSE, SWATOw, 26th February, 1874.
DAVID M. HENDERSON, Engineer-in-Chief.
No. 52.
GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.
The following Annual Report of the Hongkong General Post Office for the Year 1873, is published for general information.
By Command,
J. GARDINER AUSTIN, Colonial Secretary.
Colonial Secretary's Office, Hongkong, 21st March, 1874.
No. 11.
GENERAL POST OFFICE,
VICTORIA, HONGKONG, 19th March, 1874. SIR,I have the honor to present to His Excellency Governor SIR ARTHUR EDWArd Kennedy, K.C.M.G., C.B., the Fourteenth Annual Report on the Post Office, being that for the year 1873.
2. The year 1873 was characterized by a general dullness in Trade, and the Department has not escaped the consequent effect upon its revenue.
3. The events and alterations which are worthy of note are as follows, viz. :-
4. The arrangement referred to in my last Annual Report, paragraph 5, for sending correspon- dence paid or unpaid between this Office and Austria, and the several Continental States, viâ Trieste, by means of the British Mail Packets has been completed.
5. The French Mail Packets continue to afford the best means of transmitting Mails to and from the Australian Colonies and New Zealand viâ Point de Galle, from whence they are carried by Packets under contract with the Victorian Government, the Mails for Queensland are however now forwarded via Singapore by a line of Steamers through Torres' Straits, under Contract with the Queensland Government.
6. A line of British Mail Contract Packets has been established between Aden and Zanzibar, and thence to the Cape of Good Hope, calling at certain Ports on the Eastern Coast of Africa, and at Natal, which affords a regular means of conveyance of correspondence from Hongkong for the foreign ports on the East African Coast as well as for Natal and the Cape Colony, and by the connecting line, to St. Helena and Ascension also, at a reduced rate of postage.
7. The correspondence forwarded to London in private ship Mails, viâ Suez and Brindisi, is still inconsiderable, although in one instance, viz., the private ship mail sent by the Steamer Glaucus, which was despatched from Hongkong on the 23rd January, was delivered in London on the 3rd March, the day upon which the Mail despatched from Hongkong by the Contract Packet Sumatra on the same date was delivered in London, and the Ulysses' Mail which was despatched from Hongkong on the 27th May, was delivered in London on the 8th July, the date upon which the Travancore's Mail which was despatched on the 24th of May was delivered; the Travancore however met with an accident. The shortest time in which a private ship Mail from Hongkong, was delivered in London was 40 days, and the longest 58 days. No private ship Mails, were sent from the United Kingdom to China viâ Brindisi during the year.
8. There has been no instance of a Mail having been lost, such as was reported in the year 1872. The British Contract Packet Madras which left Hongkong on the 1st September with the Mails for Yokohama struck on a sunken rock off Swatow on the following day, and had to put into that Port, and the Bombay was despatched from Hongkong on the evening of the 4th September for Swatow and proceeded to Yokohama, with the Madras's Mails.
9. The question of establishing a Money Order system between Hongkong and China on the one side, and Saigon and Cambogia on the other has been fully considered; but for the reasons set forth in my Report of 30th August, No. 31, it was not deemed expedient to carry the project into effect.
10. The proposition to erect a Post Office at Shanghae in lieu of paying high rent has received consideration, and the Home Government having given at a peppercorn rent, the plot of ground referred to in my Report of the tour of inspection of the Postal Agencies in China and Japan, dated 20th July 1871, No. 43, Mr. BoYCE, the Government Surveyor in charge of Legation and Consular Buildings in China and Japan, stationed at Shanghae, has received instructions to prepare the ne- cessary plans, &c., an arrangement which, as I then shewed, will be more economical than that now existing.
11. The following statement shews a decrease in the Gross Revenue of 1873, as compared with 1872, amounting to $11,961.56; of which $3,969.46 is apportioned to the Imperial Post Office and $7,992.10 to the Colonial Government.