Officers may on the Station but also - as the case may be - to England and India and were this routine prevented - which would be the consequence of levying Postage - greatest public inconvenience and embarrassment would be the inevitable immediate result.
I have no doubt but all classes of the society at large will most gladly and thankfully avail themselves of the facilities which the Post Office Regulations here will henceforward afford for transmitting private letters to England, India and elsewhere, but even in this remark I must except the mercantile community, who will not, I am convinced, pay for the conveyance of letters by their vessels, and nothing is more likely than evading the Statute Law, to which Mr Scales adverts in this respect.
That is to be done by simply sending their vessels to the Portuguese settlement of Macao, whence they will eventually clear out for their intended voyage.
In the same manner going to Chusan or any of the northern Ports will apply at Victoria for a Port Clearance to an imaginary Fort or Place and under such circumstances the Post Office Authorities neither could venture to put mails on board of such vessels nor would the masters be compelled by any law that I am aware of to receive them.
That it may not be supposed that I am fancying difficulties in the preceding observations I may mention that I know positively that a vessel which is to sail in a few days for Calcutta in the first instance is to go to Macao to receive her final orders there, and that I have had a message from...