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18. Local deliveries to the Town, which had hitherto been made three times a day were last year made every two hours commencing at 8 A.M. and finishing at 6 P.M. For this purpose the Town is considered to be that portion of the City lying between Ship Street and Bonham Strand West, and between the Sea and Robinson Road. The portions beyond are regarded as Suburbs. Deliveries to the Suburbs are made three times a day and to the Peak and Kowloon twice a day. These deliveries cannot be regarded as effected at present in a perfectly satisfactory manner. The experience of the past year has satisfied me that the causes of this are:-
1stly. The want of sufficient room in which to carry on the work. This is especially felt on the days on which the French, English and American Mails are despatched when local correspondence is liable to get mixed with that intended for the outgoing mail and is only found when the correspondence for that mail is sorted, which is probably not until after the delivery hour has passed. With a view to remedy this, Special Drop Boxes have been provided for posting Local Correspondence. But the remedy is not an effectual one as Local Letters are still posted in the same Drop Box as letters for the outgoing mails.
2ndly. These deliveries have been attempted without the appointment of the full Staff which the late Mr. LISTER, after careful consideration, deemed necessary for the efficient carrying out of this work, and for which provision has already been made in the Estimates.
3rdly. The difficulty that is experienced in making the Postmen understand where private residences, such as Marlingford, La Hacienda, and Glenifer, are situated, and the further difficulty in cases where the Private Residence is known to them, of inducing them to depart from the old custom of delivering letters at the nearest place of business. Dismissal of the Postman for delivering at business places letters which are addressed to Private Residences has no good effect, for the new Postman has to be taught his District, and while he is learning it the deliveries are more unsatisfactory than they were with the man who has been dismissed.
Another cause which contributes to the unsatisfactory nature of these deliveries is to be found in the fact that a Town which extends for at least three miles in length and has two large and important suburbs like Kowloon and the Peak has to be served from a single Post Office, where the Staff is fully occupied during the entire working day from 7 A.M. to 5 P.M. with the despatch and receipt of Mails to and from places situated all over the world.
To remedy the defects in the Local deliveries, I would strongly recommend the establishment of Branch Post Offices at the Peak and Kowloon, and in the Eastern and Western Suburbs. The necessary for this are contained in Ordinance 1 of 1887, § 2.
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The advantages of having such Offices are many and are sufficiently obvious to render an enumeration of them almost superfluous. But, by way of illustration, take the case of the Peak District. At present, deliveries are effected by means of two Postmen who leave the Post Office at 11.30 a.m. and 3.30 P.M. daily, one of these after delivering letters to a portion of the Peak District has to go on to Magazine Gap, and besides delivering letters they have to clear the Pillar Boxes. It is found that it takes the Postman whose deliveries are confined entirely to the Peak, as a rule, from two to two and a half hours to effect his deliveries and return to the Post Office, while the other Postman takes, as a rule, from two and a half to three hours, and if they have many letters to deliver it takes longer. The consequence is that letters posted in the Pillar Boxes before noon never reach the Post Office in time for the Noon Delivery, and very often not until after the Postmen have started for the 2 P.M. Delivery. It is the same thing in the afternoon. If there were a Post Office at the Peak, letters posted there, or in the Pillar Boxes, could be got ready to hand to the Postman on his arrival at Noon and 4 P.M., and he could at once return to the General Post Office, leaving the mails he has brought up to be distributed by the Peak Post Office. The letters from the Peak would be received at the General Post Office, sorted according to the several delivery districts, and could be sent out at once, and the delay necessitated by sorting them when they reach the General Post Office would be avoided. On mail days also it would be possible to make provision for letters being posted up to say a hour before the mail is closed in the General Post Office, and it would also be possible to provide the convenience of additional deliveries at the Peak. The same argument applies to Kowloon, and the Eastern and Western suburbs of the Town. Take the case of these latter. A person living in the Western suburbs posts a letter for the Eastern suburbs in one of the Pillar Boxes at 8 A.M.; it is cleared by the Postman in the course of his rounds with the 9 A.M. deliveries, and perhaps, does not reach the General Post Office till 11.30 A.M.; it is sent out again at Noon. The reply is posted in a Pillar Box shortly after, but cannot reach the General Post Office until the return of the Postman from his 5 P.M. deliveries by which time the Post Office is closed and the letter does not get delivered till next morning. With Post Offices in these suburbs a letter posted in the West before 8.45 A.M. would reach the General Post Office in time to be sent to the Eastern Post Office at nine, and the reply would be in time to be
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