DIE
MON
DIT.
THE HONGKONG
Government Gazette.
Published by Authority.
VICTORIA, SATURDAY, 3RD MARCH, 1866.
VOL. XII.
No. 9.
No. 30.
GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.
His Excellency the ACTING GOVERNOR directs the publication of the subjoined Annual Report of the Hongkong General Post Office for the Year 1865.
By Order,
Colonial Secretary's Office, Hongkong, 26th February, 1866.
W. H. ALEXANDER, Acting Colonial Secretary.
No. 7.
GENERAL POST OFFICE, HONGKONG, 22nd February, 1846.
SIR,-In transmitting for the information of His. Excellency the Acting Governor this my Sixth Annual Report of the Revenue and Expenditure and general working of this Department, being that for the year 1865, I have the honor to point et, that, although the figures shew that the revenue which the Colonial Government acquired in the year 1865 is somewhat less than it was in the year 1864, yet this apparent diminution is to a great extent accounted for by the altered system of Accounts which was brought into operation on the 1st March last, under which the profits ou the Remittances made to London have not been credited to the Post Office, as was the case in former years, and as these from March to December 1864 amounted to $10,653.05, it is proper, for the sake of comparison, to add this sum to the Revenne actually received;-in the year just closed the profit on exchange in the Remittances of Revenue from Shanghae, was $024.68 less than it was in 1864.
The revenue collected at the Packet Agency Shanghae on loose letters (i. e. letters carried outside the Mails), in the
year 1804 amounted to $3,466.18, whilst that received in the year 1865 was $1,672.01 only; this reduction of revenue is occasioned s an arrangement which obtains there for the masters of Vessels arriving at Shanghae to deliver all their loose letters at the Local Post Office; these formerly were taken to the British Packet Agency, and it is proper to remark that the Steamers of the Peninsular and Oriental Company are not exceptions to this rule, although the Messageries Imperiales Packets deliver Le correspondence conveyed by them, to the French Post Office at-Shanghae.
To find the Colony's share of Revenue for the past year, the change in the mode of keeping the Accounts has made it ecessary to deduct from the total revenue received, the amount remitted to the General Post Office in London, and for the same cause it became necessary that the debts amounting to $6,839.98 due to that Office by the Packet Agents at the Ports China and Japan should be taken over by the Colony, and it is therefore also necessary in comparing the Colonial Revenue of 1865 with that of 1864, to add that sum to last year's revenue.
The difference between the amounts outstanding due to the Colony at the end of each of these years would be a very per item to add to or deduct from, as the case might require, the last years revenue; but as in the year 1864 this was put down inclusive of the unsold postage Stamps on hand at the Packet Agencies, and in 1865 the sums due at these Agencies properly estimated without the Stamps on hand, the difference under this head cannot, with any proper degree of certainty,
contrasted.
The comparative account then stands thus:
Total amount of Revenue (Imperial and Colonial) collected during the year 1865, Imperial portion of the same (27,267.18.54),-
$192,143.06
130,886.03
leaving Colonial portion,.
€1,257.03
against $86,341.11 revenue of 1864, the difference being made up principally, by
Excess of Profits on Remittances from Shanghae in 1864 over those of 1865, . Amount due to London Office on the 1st March, 1865, paid by the Colony under the changed
plan of keeping accounts, .
Profit on remittances made to London in 1864, the corresponding item not being included in
Post Office revenue for 1835,.
10,653.05.
624.68
6,830.98
$70,374.74
which shews a decrease of $6,966.37 in the ordinary Colonial Revenue of 1865, as compared with that of 1864.
This decrease may be accounted for in numerous ways, such as the inroads the French Post Office has made upon the evenue by the extension of the French line of Packets from Shanghae to Yokohamaa; the extended operations of the Shanghao cal Post Office, and the depressed state of Commerce in China and Japan.