POST OFFICE
(Contd.)
collected here. I take the following extract from a letter to Lt. Col. Simmonds, commanding the Ceylon Rifles at Hong Kong written in 1847, and detailing the account due the Post Office from the military authorities. The communication in referring to the charge made for naval and military men's correspondence states:
"By the mail steam packet these letters are charged one penny each if prepaid, or two pence each if forwarded unpaid but sailing vessel they are subject to the Ship Letter Rate of fourpence the half ounce. Whenever the Soldiers Letters are charged fourpence they were received by ship."
All charges for carriage of mails were by account rendered, much as one pays for telegrams to-day. It was not until December 8, 1862, that postage stamps came into use in Hong Kong, the charges being changed from sterling currency into local money. The first issue of stamps here was in two, eight, twelve, eighteen, twenty-four and forty-eight cents values; the exchange being reckoned at 24 cents to the shilling. The practice of keeping running accounts with the Post Office was thereupon discontinued, and a certain amount of confusion is said to have arisen, but this was soon overcome.
It is interesting to note that, as with all innovations, the introduction of postage stamps met with considerable misgiving and even some opposition locally, but in due course the "unpopular" change was accepted and everything ran smoothly.
From time to time the postal charges were reduced. In July 1876, the rates on letters to England were lowered, Hong Kong entering the Postal Union in September that year on payment of £3,150 per annum. The following year, in April 1877, there was a further reduction, local postage being halved, and the rate to England being again lowered. It might be noted that the charge for a letter to England was still rather high, being sixteen cents. In 1879, however, there was practically a uniform rate for the whole world and the charge from Hong Kong to any country in the Postal Union was ten cents for each letter.
The issue of money orders on India was first established in August 1875, Indian money orders being also cashed here and in 1879 an exchange of money orders was extended, the Australian colonies being included. Parcels were also carried by a regular service with many parts of the world.
In May 1885 there is reference in the records to the establishment of a direct parcel post between Hong Kong and England by P. and O. ships.
Registration was not introduced for some years. The first reference I can find is a letter dated January 30, 1857 mentioning a decision to introduce a system of registration of postal packets into Hong Kong.
833
The time taken in the conveyance of mails in the old days and the routes followed, are of much interest. In 1847, for instance, the correspondence includes a complaint by a London addressee whose letters from Sydney (Australia) through Hong Kong had been forwarded from here via Southampton instead of overland via Marseilles, thus causing delay. It shows how early was the use of the Marseilles route for time-saving; also that Hong Kong was the intermediate point for despatch of mails between Australia and England.
Some idea of the length of time taken is given by a reference in another letter to "the mail from London of the 20th December, 1846 which arrived here on the 26th February, 1847." When we compare