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for letters, take in circulars which have to be entered in the Circular Book & Compradore's Book or as the case may be in a Boxholder's Book; the entries have to be shown to the clerk in charge, who has to sign the Circular Book as correct. When Poste restante letters are delivered the delivering clerk has to see that the person taking delivery signs the book & then has himself to sign his name against the entry.
The work involved in looking after Poste restante correspondence properly is sufficient to keep one officer in each relief busy, as he would have to see that requests for the forwarding of correspondence were promptly attended to; to see that noting was kept & advertised no longer than the times specified; examine the hotel lists in the daily papers & send out as much correspondence as possible, &c.
The officers of the two reliefs in charge of Poste restante work would also have between them to prepare the weekly lists & to post & distribute them when received from the printers. An officer of each relief, to be called the Taxing officer, should have sole charge of the duty of clearing the drop boxes. Everything taken from the drop boxes he should place on a table & examine before allowing any stamps to be obliterated; & he should separate the correspondence into three divisions "Outside," "Inside," & "Hong Kong," taxing anything insufficiently prepaid, & supervising the obliteration of the stamps.
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