which often cost more to collect than they are worth. Such is precisely the case with the question of Parcels Post. A resident in China desires to send home a silver bracelet. He wishes his correspondent to receive it free, but he considers Letter rate of Postage too expensive. If there were a parcel post, even then the Custom House stands ready to demand six or seven shillings as duty. The bracelet, therefore, finally finds its way to England in the trunk or pocket of some passenger, who is either unaware that he is carrying a dutiable article or is indifferent to the fact. The sender and the receiver have been subjected to a good deal of delay and inconvenience, and the Government has received nothing. The small amounts of Customs duties wrung from the receivers of little parcels would probably be recouped many times over by Postage gladly paid on free articles. It is the duties on merchandise which swell national revenue, and all that is necessary to protect them is to make such regulations as shall prevent the forwarding of merchandise in marketable quantities, under whatever pretext, through the Post.
16. The Time Table under the new Mail Contract has not yet been so adjusted as to secure freedom from Sunday work in Hongkong throughout the year. We have, it is true, got the Sunday free in summer, which is something, but on the other hand it is rendered a working day in winter. It takes two years at least to get a mail service to work smoothly and to the satisfaction of all concerned; perhaps, therefore, before another winter some further change may benefit Hongkong in this particular. Such a change is being asked for in India, and the London Post Office has therefore been reminded of the views of this Colony. On the other hand, the new Time Table is so arranged as materially to diminish the present heavy expense of marine sorting.
17. Considerable interest has been manifested at Foochow in the old question of a subsidised mail service between that Port and Hongkong. There is one argument in favour of the views of the Foochow community which appears to have been unnoticed hitherto, that is, that Foochow is the only considerable port in China not provided by its local trade with fairly regular steam communication with Hongkong or Shanghai. But though this consideration may possibly be valid as supporting a claim on the Imperial Government, it is difficult to say why any community in China should ask for a subsidy from Hongkong. A feeling seems to prevail at Foochow that Hongkong people do not care very much what comes of mails for that settlement. Such is not the case in this Office. Accidents have happened, of course. To some extent accidents always will happen. But nothing that could be done has knowingly been left undone, and Messrs. DOUGLAS LAPRAIK & Co. have always been most ready to operate, often keeping their steamers waiting for hours to secure the mail. Whilst on this subject, opportunity may be taken to thank Messrs. ELLES & Co. of Amoy for their aid in similar and other matters at that port.
18. It became necessary to investigate a series of mail robberies at Canton. To save time in despatching mails to and from that Office, they are forwarded in locked boxes, a key being kept at either end. A Chinese servant of the Canton Office had provided himself with a false key, and he systematically plundered the mail. More adroit than most Post Office thieves, when he found nothing in the covers examined, he closed them again with exquisite neatness, and forwarded them by the next steamer. He was detected by means of decoy letters posted for the purpose, and was handed over to the Chinese authorities. Precautions have been taken which will probably render any repetition of his crime impossible, but it is painful to reflect that he might possibly have been doing his duty as an honest man at this moment but for the almost criminally reckless practice of posting letters containing money without the security of Registration, indulged in, it must be added with regret, by persons who ought to know better.
19. People seem to think that because Bills of Exchange and Money Orders can be sent home with fair safety in unregistered Letters, therefore local Bank Notes may be sent about the Town here or to Canton or Macao, without the slightest precaution. This Office has, it is true, been singularly free from cases of letter-stealing, because, as a general rule, the contents of the letters are not negotiable here, and therefore if precautions are used to prevent thefts of letters for the sake of the Stamps, the greater part of any temptation to dishonesty is removed. But, once let the habit of sending either notes or stamps in unregistered Letters become common, nothing could prevent the state of things described in the next paragraph, which has probably been induced at home by the great increase of the practice of sending Postage Stamps in Letters answering advertisements.
20. Bills of Exchange and Money Orders sent home in unregistered Letters are not, after all, so very safe as the senders prefer to think them. The following extracts are from the evidence of Mr. JEFFERY, Controller of the Circulation Department, General Post Office, London, before a Committee of the House of Commons:--
"We have a very great number of letters stolen every year, in fact many more than we know anything about. Last year we had 65,000 applications for missing letters, and we know that the applications are few in comparison with the number of letters lost. We lost some Manchester bags estimated to contain about 600 letters, and we only had 14 or 15 complaints. A man takes 20 letters on the chance of finding something of value in some of them. The robberies are increasing every year. The robberies are increasing more in proportion than the letters. The practice of sending valuables in letters has been condemned by every Judge in the land. I have heard the present Recorder of London state he would never certify for a witness' expenses in a prosecution case when the witness is the person who sent the valuables through the Post in an unregistered Letter. I was about to suggest that it might be desirable for the Committee to see the Circulation Department here, when the mails are going out; it would then be seen how utterly impossible it is to have a check on an unregistered Letter."