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COMMUNICATIONS AND TRANSPORT
problems likely to be encountered in tunnelling in soft ground under the particular conditions prevailing in Hong Kong.
The drafting of legislation continued and a start was made on the acquisition and clearance of land and property required for the construction of the railway.
Postal Services
There was an increase in most categories of postal traffic in 1973 and it was estimated that 261 million postal items-letters, registered articles and parcels—were handled during the year. This represented an increase of 4.6 per cent over 1972.
A notable feature of the changes in traffic patterns was a significant increase in the number of parcels and small packets despatched to China. But, a prohibition by China on the importation by post of used clothing and bedding, which came into effect on November 1, 1973, dampened the rising trend in the closing months of the year.
There was also a sharp decline in air parcel traffic to the United States, due largely to a reduction in the number of American servicemen visiting Hong Kong.
There were 68 post offices in operation at the end of the year all providing facilities for the sale of stamps, acceptance of registered articles and parcels, and the issue and payment of postal orders and money orders. Special services used mainly by the business community, such as business reply facilities, cash on delivery parcels, private boxes and bags, postage meter machines and arrangements for bulk postings are available. Agency services provided on behalf of other government departments include payments of public assistance benefits-now nearly 40,000 a month, more than double the rate in 1972.
A new service to and from the United Kingdom known as Speedpost was intro- duced in September and was later extended to the United States. This is a contract service and is designed particularly for extremely urgent business documents and commercial papers on a regular and predetermined basis. Times of collection from the sender's premises and delivery to the addressee are specified and agreed with the customer, utilising specific flights and the integrity and resources of the distant postal administration. The service has proved of substantial value to firms engaged in a wide range of commercial and industrial activity.
Excluding Sundays, mail is delivered to most areas twice a day, except in certain rural and residential areas where the volume of mail does not justify more than one delivery a day. A fleet of 80 vehicles is used for posting box collections, motorised deliveries, and the internal movement of mail.
During the year direct mail despatches were regularly made up for more than 200 different destinations overseas, and the routing of mails was kept under constant review to ensure that optimum use was made of available outlets. The greater number of container ships used for carrying mail during the year has resulted in a change in the pattern of surface despatches. The loading and unloading of containers takes place on Post Office premises and the use of containers has eased some of the storage prob- lems encountered in the past and facilitated mail handling.
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