16. Considerable numbers of dye and sugar samples have been intercepted during the year in their transit through the post, and destroyed, the attention of the despatching Office being in all cases called to the fact, and the name and address of the sender being forwarded to it. Samples of aniline dye are most mischievous. No matter how they are packed, the contents generally leak out, and one of them will spoil a whole bag of other correspondence.
17. The Assistant Postmaster General (Mr. TRAVERS) went to Europe on leave in February last and has been temporarily replaced by Mr. W. D. HUTCHISON, whose energy and suggestive mind have made him a most valuable addition to a Department otherwise much undermanned. Whilst the habit, far too common in the Colonial Service, of thinking anybody good enough for the Post Office, can only be deeply deplored, it does not follow that because an Officer has no previous acquaintance with Postal work he will be useless when transferred to it. On the contrary, the "old hand," who has been habituated to the Post Office for years, is apt to get into a groove, and into that state of mind which is known as not being able to see the wood for the trees. Much progress in the Postal service has resulted from the suggestions of outsiders. Sir ROWLAND HILL (then Mr. HILL) had no knowledge of Postal work when he pressed his reforms upon an unwilling Department. A striking improvement in sorting, which has been copied here, was urged upon the Singapore Post Office by a member of the community; and, similarly, both Mr. TRAVERS and Mr. HUTCHISON, within a few weeks of their appointments, had made valuable suggestions on points which for years had escaped the notice of the trained staff of this office.
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18. Otherwise, the Department has been very short-handed. No summer is recollected with so much sickness. The senior clerk was thrown from a vehicle and so severely injured as to keep him from office for six months. Another and equally valuable officer caught a chill from working in wet clothes (during one of our heavy rushes of night work) and this resulted in a kind of paralytic seizure which kept him absent for a long time. Sometimes there would be as many as five absent (out of thirteen) whilst even those who were here were working under difficulties from inflamed feet, swollen faces, toothache, &c. If it is remembered that in the Post Office it is impossible to get in an extra hand (for a beginner is worse than useless in the manual work of the office for at least three months) it will be seen that the officers of this Department have not had, during the past summer, exactly the easy time of it which some persons are pleased to believe they enjoy. Notwithstanding these drawbacks, there has never been a period when so few complaints have been received as to alleged missing letters as during the year under review. One firm indeed reported the loss of several entire mails for Europe, containing most valuable enclosures, but there is no doubt these letters were stolen on their way to the Post Office, whither they were sent without the precaution even of a chit-book. The usual number of complaints has of course been made as to the non-arrival or late arrival of papers from home, and in some instances they have been urged with a good deal of temper. It is hard to see why this Depart- ment is to be made responsible for the laches of London errand-boys. The papers do not arrive, and there is an end of it. There are two almost invariable causes for these delays, Late Posting, and Insuffi- cient Payment. News-agents find it easy to throw all the blame on the Post Office, and their customers seem to prefer to believe them.
19. The London Post Office raised the question whether the present subsidised mail service cannot be discontinued on the expiration of the existing contract, and the mails carried by private steamers as is the rule across the Atlantic. The Report of this Department is printed as an Appendix.
20. Allusion is made in that report to the complaints which, since the discontinuance in 1881 of the subsidised P. & O. service to Japan, have been received from all the foreign settlements there. This matter is gone into so fully in a correspondence with the London Post Office, also printed as an Appendix, that it is not necessary to add more than one observation, which is this. If the Editors of Japanese newspapers really imagine that the violent language they are fond of using towards this Office is likely to do any good, it may surely be supposed they would take the trouble to forward copies of their remarks to the Department believed to be in fault. So far from this being the case, there has been considerable difficulty in getting to know the dates on which the mails reach Japan, or any other details. Yet obviously the first step towards rectifying a grievance is to find out what it is.
21. One word may perhaps be permitted as to the local delivery of correspondence in Hongkong. This is what the late MR. FAWCETT said of recent improvements in delivery in English Provincial towns;-
"As bearing upon the increase of deliveries, the great importance of affording every practicable facility which would encourage local correspondence has continued to be kept steadily in view. This object can be in many cases much promoted by increasing the number of collections from pillar boxes in provincial towns. It is often found possible in this way to secure the delivery of a letter in the town within two or three hours after it has been posted.”
That is in England, where everything is arranged for the arrival of mails by Railway at fixed hours. Now let us see what is demanded in this "Clapham Junction for steamers," where nothing is certain to happen but the unexpected. A resident in Canton sends on board the morning steamer a letter for Hongkong. He does not post it, that would be too much to ask, he tosses it on board without postage stamp or prepayment of any kind. It reaches this Office, unpaid of course, during
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