THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 5TH APRIL, 1873.
145
3. In the early part of the year, a reduction of one penny per half-ounce was made in the postage letters sent between the United Kingdom and Hongkong by French Packet thus cqualizing the ra to thirty cents each half-ounce letter whether conveyed by British or French Packet, and the
stage on newspapers for and through the United Kingdom was also reduced by one penny.
4. Under the new arrangement of the China and Australian Mail services, the Mails from the Australian Colonies and New Zealand for China now reach Point de Galle after the departure of the British Packets for Hongkong, and therefore these Mails are generally conveyed from Point de Haile to Hongkong by French Packet, and permission has been given for the transmission of the Mails. from China for Australia to Point de Galle by French Packet on occasions when it may be desirable do so, in order to overtake the Australian Mail Packet before her departure from Point de Galle for Sydney. The postage collected in Australia on letters for Hongkong, or in Hongkong on letters for Australia, viz., one shilling per half-ounce letter, now covers the whole charge whether the letters are conveyed by British or by French Packet.
5. Arrangements have been nearly completed, under the Postal Convention entered into by the Imperial Post Office and the Post Office of Austria, by which correspondence addressed to Austria and the several States of the Continent, may be transmitted by the British Mail Packets between this tice and the Post Offices at Trieste and Alexandria, paid or unpaid. Hitherto pre-payment to Alexandria was compulsory, the postage from thence to destination being collected on delivery.
6. An altered system of keeping the accounts between this Office and the Imperial Post Office has been inaugurated, which is more comprehensive than that formerly employed, and has imposed increased labor upon this Office.
7. The losses of Mails are fortunately of unfrequent occurrence; but during the past year the Mails from America for Hongkong, Macao, Canton, Swatow, Amoy, Foochow, Manila, the Straits and India, were totally lost by the burning of the United States' Mail Packet America, in the bay of Yoko-
hama.
8. The Mails, which left Yokohama on the 4th September last, were delayed in reaching Hong- kong by the breakdown of the British Mail Packet Ottawa at Oosima, and were forwarded by the following French Mail Packet.
9. On the China Coast, the steamers:
Suwonada, (Mails lost),
Sunshine, (Mails saved),
Chukiang, (Mails lost),
Yeddo, (no Mails), Douglas, (Mails saved),
Rona, (Mails lost), Sedan, (Mails lost),
have been lost, and the Hailoong (Mails saved) went on shore at Breaker Point.
10. The return marked D shows that the number of United States' Mail Packets between San Francisco and Hongkong was increased to two Packets a month during a few months of the past year, whilst towards the close of the year only one Packet a month arrived and departed.
11. A Post Office Agency has recently been established at Hankow, which has been found a great convenience to the inhabitants of that Port. The returns from the sale of postage stamps and the business of the Office has been, so far, satisfactory. Its chief patrons are the Russians who readily avail themselves of the security which the Post Office affords, as contrasted with the practice which prevails at all the Ports of China and Japan of sending letters loosely on board, or to the steamers' Agents.
12. During the year, Mr. D. J. BARRADAS, an Officer who had filled many important positions in the Department during a period of 17 years, and latterly that of Accountant, and who had always been a most zealous servant, was compelled, through a paralytic seizure, to retire.
13. The Money Order system with the mother country which has been continued during the year with benefit to the remitters of small sums of money has not been productive of sufficient com- mission to cover expenses. It will be observed that whilst the amount remitted to the United Kingdom has increased by £1,810.17.6 as compared with the amount in 1871, the amount of the Money Orders drawn in the United Kingdom upon China and Japan has remained almost nominal, it has however, exceeded that of the year 1871 by about £39. The total of the local Money Order transactions in 1872 only slightly exceeded that of 1871.
14. The question of the establishment of a Post Office Money Order system between Hongkong, Canton, Swatow, and Amoy on the one side, and the Straits Settlements on the other, has been fully considered, but, for the reasons set forth in my Report of the 10th September last, No. 39, it has not been considered expedient to take any steps to give effect to the scheme.
15. The proposal, made by this Office, referred to at paragraph 8 of my last anuual Report, that the postage on all correspondence forwarded by "private ship" between Ilongkong and the Straits Settlements should be paid at the dispatching office only, and that the receiving office should deliver such correspondence without charge and pay the gratuity to the ship master, still remains in abeyance.