POST OFFICE (Contd.)
❤ of carriage by the Chinese boats.
That same month the Captain of the schooner "Mazeppa" was guilty of a piece of carelessness which was liable to a heavy fine: he "overlooked" a portion of the mail which he carried and which arrived on August 25, 1847, the delayed packets not being delivered at the Post Office until six days later, August 31. It happened that this portion contained a dispatch from London to the acting Governor, the Hon. Mr. Johnsten and the captain's only explanation was that "by some accident" he had overlooked several packages. The Postmaster wrote to the Governor asking whether proceedings should not be taken in the matter, but there is no record of the eventual result in this particular case, apart from reprimand.
In June 1848, the Manager of the Oriental Bank, Mr. C. J. F. Stuart, wrote to the Postmaster complaining that letters had been delayed, and the latter replied that one packet of correspondence had been "unfortunately overlooked" by the commanding officer of the schooner "Poppy" from Calcutta.
Apart from these lapses, there was the illegal conveyance of correspondence, and in 1848 we find references to the fining of Captain Larkins the sum of £100 for illegal conveyance of letters which meant that packets had been carried without the Post Office being notified or being paid its dues. In the old court records further particulars of the case are given, the defendant being the master of the "Corsair," already referred to in these notes:
"The case of the Queen versus Larkins, which had excited considerable local interest, came on for hearing on the 2nd June (1847), before Chief Justice Hulme and a special jury. Captain Larkins was proprietor of the steamer "Corsair" plying between Hong Kong and Canton, and was charged with having, during twelve months from February 1846 to March 1847 carried letters not excluded from the exclusive privileges of the Postmaster-General. The penalty provided by Statute was either £5 for each letter, or £100 for every week the practice was continued. The Crown claimed the latter amounting to £5,200. The jury found the defendant guilty of one breach of the Statute, thereby rendering him liable in a single penalty of £100, recommending a remission of the fine on the ground that the defendant was rendering a public service, and accompanying their verdict with a censure of the authorities for having permitted a system to go on so long (upwards of a year) unchecked—a remark very proper in itself, but rather strangely appended to a verdict which found that the offence had been committed during one week only."
In October 1848 there is a strongly worded complaint by the Postmaster that some captains on arrival in port sent their letters to the ships' consignees instead of to the Post Office direct, as they were required to do by the regulation and that the consignees "culled" their own and their friends' letters, which "escaped the ship letter postage charge."
In a later letter the Captain of the barque "Water Witch" is severely taken to task for not immediately sending his mail to the Post Office after coming to anchor.
At this period, in fact there are quite a number of references in the same strain, and in a communication to Major Caine, acting Colonial Secretary, in January 1849, the Postmaster refers to the "almost
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