POST OFFICE (Contd.)
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dally repeated acts of negligence on the part of masters of Merchant Vessels resorting to this Post." During the summer of 1849 several prosecutions were instituted owing to serious delays of the mails after arrival: in one case certain packages were held up aboard a ship as long as ten days, with no explanation given.
In 1848, at the height of the agitation against the holding up of mails, the Harbour Master lent his launch so that a copy of the regulations could be taken aboard a ship on its arrival in port, and exhibited to the master, leaving him no excuse for not sending his mails immediately to the Post Office.
Some years later we find the Hong Kong Postmaster making serious allegations regarding the circumventing of the Post Office In October 1855 the acting P.M., Mr. Chapman, writing to the Postmasters at Shanghai, refers to "contraband communication" between Hong Kong and Shanghai, and states "I have very good reason for believing that the merchants of Shanghae have their more important despatches smuggled to Woosung, and from there conveyed over land to Shanghae, and are actually in receipt of them several hours before the mails are received by you, thereby defrauding the Post Office to a considerable extent.'
Apart from these worries, the postal authorities sometimes found it difficult to get a mail connexion even with Canton, and in July 1856 reference is made to a ruling (which probably went against the Post Office wishes) that a shipmaster of a private vessel was not bound to convey mail between Hong Kong and Canton.
In 1858 the whole question was being tackled vigorously. In October that year the London G.P.O. had refused to sanction a request by the Hong Kong Postmaster for money required for a boat and crew to be employed in taking mails off ships as soon as they arrived in port, the P.M.G. pointing out that by law the commanders of ships were obliged to land, and send to the Post Office, the mails carried by them. Later, an effort was made to obtain the use of a Police Launch, which was refused, and it was some years before the Post Office obtained a vessel of its own; in due course we find references to boatmen being carried on the staff, provided with living quarters in the Post Office building.
The introduction of postage stamps in the early Sixties must have been a definite check on the practice of illegal carriage of mails; and the Post Office eventually taking delivery itself from steamers, did away with the old complaint.
A brief survey might be given of the growth of local facilities. In February 188... the Postmaster General was minuting to the Governor on a request for "connexion of a telephone with the Peak;" and on November 15 following, the Colonial Secretary quotes the Governor's minute, referring to a letter from the acting P.M.G. respecting "the postal service at the Peak" the minute reading as follows. "Approved, and say I mark with satisfaction Mr. Travers's effort to suit the public convenience."
Most residents of twelve years or so can remember the advent of the present Post Office building in Kowloon, and in the records we find the initial effort on the mainland. There is on file a copy of the original lease made with the H.K. and Kowloon Wharf and Godown Company whereby from June 1, 1898 (originally for the term of one year) a partitioned-off portion of Godown No. 7 was rented at $25 a month, for use as a post office. And so from small beginnings we have the facilities of to-day.
Before concluding this series we might consider the move to