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11. This opportunity may perhaps be taken of explaining that a parcel for China can be posted at any Post Office in the United Kingdom, at the rate of 10d. a tb, and that it will be conveyed under Registration to, and delivered free at any of the Ports named in the last paragraph, or that it can be forwarded, at the sender's risk, to any other place in China to which there is communication.
12. It is already evident that the inward Parcel system will lead to a number of those false alarms about losses which are always being raised from time to time about every kind of correspond- ence. The Parcel mail leaves London only fortnightly, and even then comes out by way of Gibraltar. It is quite possible therefore that a letter may arrive here nearly three weeks before a parcel posted about the same time. The addressee meanwhile is convinced his parcel is lost. Except however by some casualty, such as fire or shipwreck, there is no probability that any parcel will be lost.
13. The Money Order extensions and the Parcel Post system reviewed above have of course added very considerably to the work of this Department. On the other hand a proposal has been submitted to the Imperial Post Office to lighten that work by the abolition of the present complicated system of accounts kept between this Office and London. The Postal Union regulations have practically swept away all Postal Accounts with other countries, but the old-fashioned system of accounts with London has been retained. It has been pointed out that the difference between the total balances for one year and another, even taking extreme cases, does not amount to £150, and that it would be cheaper for the Colony to pay that sum annually than to keep elaborate accounts of a charge of twopence-half- penny on this letter and sixpence on that. The question will, it is hoped, be settled by the entire adoption of Union principles between the two offices.
14. The series of Postage Stamps in use has been re-arranged so as to consist entirely of decimal values. The desirability of having only one issue of Stamps for both Postal and Revenue purposes has not been lost sight of, but certain difficulties must be overcome before this can be brought about.
15. Mr. LEIRIA, the senior clerk in this Office, retired on pension after thirty-two years good service. Mr. HUTCHISON, Acting Assistant Postmaster General, obtained an appointment in Corea before the return from leave of absence of Mr. TRAVERS, whom he had replaced, and the Department was again left without Assistant. It is impossible to speak too highly of the way in which the work was carried on during the interim by Messrs. ROCHA and MACHADO, who were entrusted with the duty of supervising the routine of the service. During this time a period of International Statistics occurred (the month of May) the complicated details of which were dealt with satisfactorily.
16. An International Congress assembled at Lisbon in February last for the purpose of revising, extending and perfecting what are now practically the postal arrangements of the world. It is impossi- ble to lay down the two ponderous volumes which record the proceedings of this conference, or even the revised Convention which formed its principal work, without a feeling of disappointment. Regula- tions are left that would have been better abolished, whilst, of the few changes that have been made, some are of questionable utility. The entry of the Australian and South African Colonies into the Union seems little nearer than it was five years ago. The vexatious and needless distinction between Printed and Commercial Papers is retained, as is a frivolous regulation for a compulsory exchange of specimen Postage Stamps. The period of Statistics has been made to recur every three instead of two years, and this is a real boon. Moreover the rational system of multiplication advocated from the first by this Office has been adopted. The results of 28 days' observations are to be multiplied by 13, instead of multiplying a month's totals by 12. When five mails leave within the month it is obvious that on the latter system this Colony would pay as for sixty mails in the year, whereas there are but fifty-two.
17. The fee for Registry of Local correspondence has been reduced to 5 cents, which, at present rates of exchange, is the same as the fee of 2d. charged at home for Registration.
It is hoped that this increased facility will tend to check the habit of forwarding bank notes in unregistered letters. Some years ago the Postal system of the United Kingdom was seriously deranged on account of the thousands of letters which arrived in London every morning containing Postage Stamps. People advertised, Send thirteen stamps for this; Send five shillings' worth of stamps for that. A sorter or postman who stole a bundle of letters at random was certain to find several of them containing stamps. This Office has had to struggle hard not to suffer in the same way from the persistence with which residents at the Ports, chiefly Canton and Swatow, will, in spite of all remonstrances, pay their small bills here by means of bank notes sent in unregistered covers. Chinese do not steal bundles of letters at haphazard, they select those that feel tempting, and unfortunately it is not only or even chiefly the people that enclose bank notes in letters who suffer, the correspon- dence of others is taken. At one time it seemed to be rapidly becoming the rule that even a sample of calico or cloth put into a letter marked it for immediate theft.
18. The whole work of a Post Office is organised on the supposition that ordinary letters will contain nothing of intrinsic or immediately convertible value. If it were certain that every letter would contain a bank note, each letter as posted would have to be entered on a list, and to be recorded throughout its entire transit, just as a registered article is. The number of officers employed would grow to that of a standing army. If therefore a portion of the public will persist in throwing on the Post Office a responsibility which it notifies on every opportunity its organisation does not enable it to accept, they must be left to take the consequences..