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No. 36.
GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.
His Excellency the Governor directs the publication of the subjoined Annual Report of the Hongkong General Post Office for 1864.
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By Order,
Colonial Secretary's Office, Hongkong, 8th March, 1865.
W. T. MERCER, Colonial Secretary,
GENERAL Post Office,
Honokono, 2nd February, 1865.
(No. 10.)
SIR-I do myself the honour to report for the information of His Excellency the Governor that the Revenue which accrued from this Department to the Colonial Government during the year 1984, nineunted to eighty-six thousand three hundred and forty-one Dollars and eleven cents, being an increase of seventeen thousand five hundred and eighty-one Dollars and two cents on the Revenue for the year 1803, 835,208.36 on the Revenue of 1862, and $61,021,57 on the Revenue of 1861, which shews the steady and continued prosperity of the Office,
The expenditure for the year 1864, so far as the same has been defrayed by the Colony, amounts to twenty-four thoussed four hundred and thirty-one Dollars and five cents, or three thousand two hundred and fifteen Dollars and sixty-three cents in excess of the expenditure of the year 1803, and this is accounted for by the continued increase in the gratuities paid to Mustera of Vessels, under the 12th Clause of the Post Office Ordinance, for the conveyance of Ship Mails; the employment of an addi- tional Sorter; and the increased expenditure at the Packet Agencies at the Porta in China and Jupan.
The Amount of Imperial Revenue which was collected in Hongkong, and remitted to the General Post Office in London during the year 1804, was twenty-six thousand and sixty-seven Pounds and eleven shillings Sterling, being an increase of £1,981.6.0 on the Revenue of 1863, £7,501.9.3 on the Revenue of 1862, and 15,809.7.04 ou the Revenue of 1861.
In the cases of both the Imperial and Colonial Revenue I consider the increases to have arisen from the additions which have been made to commerce at the various Ports in China and Japan, and also to the addition to the Mercantile and Banking Population of Hongkong.
The total Revenue of the Hongkong Post Office for the year 1804 amounts to two hundred and eleven thousand four hundred and sixty-five Dollars and thirty-five ceats, or a total excess ove: the previous years' Revenue of twenty-seven thousand and ninety-one Dollars and twenty-six cents.
From the 1st of August last the business of the Department has been carried on in a portion of the Supreme Court House, and pending the completion of the new Post Office, now in course of erection, these temporary Offices will be sufficient for the requirements of the Department, I fully anticipate however that in the new building I shall be able to give the public increased facilities, and I hope to make many improvements in the efficiency of the Office.
During the past year the Mails sent and received by the French line of Packets have increased in some small degree. The compulsory use of Colonial Postage Stamps in the payment of postages in Hongkong, and also at the Purts, has met with complete success, and although great opposition was made to the measure at the outset, it is now, I believe, admitted on all sides to have advantages over the old system of payments in money, and so far as the Department and its Agencies are concerned, the introduction and use of Stamps has been found an improvement.
The illegal transmission of correspondence by the great firms still continues, and it has been observed that although some of the houses who have important Agencies at Shanghae seldom receive their Correspondence arriving by the British Contract Packets through the Post, ret in many cases their Correspondence sent from and to the same place by the French Mail Packets passes through the Post Office, and I submit that this fact goes to shew that greater attention is paid to the Regulations and Law which prohibits the transmission of general Correspondence outside the Mails, on board the Messageries Imperiales steamers than is given to the subject on board the Vessels of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, which are under contract to Her Majesty's Government for the conveyance of Mails, and who are prohibited under that Contract from carrying lesters otherwise than in the Mails, excepting of course such letters as are exempt by Law, but notwithstanding, the Vessels of this Company never make a trip to or from the Northern Ports under Contract, or otherwise, without illegally conveying Correspondence, and although I have taken every means in my power to prevent the continuance of the system, which injures the Revenue and gives advantages to those who adopt it, over those who adopt the legal method of sending their Correspondence, I regret to say that my attempts have been unsuccessful.
The accounts of the department still grow in intricacy, and I am unable to recommend any change which would work advantageously in the system of keeping them, except it be to adopt a similar system to that which I believe prevails with the Australian Colonies, or some of them, and that is for the Colony to retain all the Revenue collected here, the Imperial Poet Office acting in like manner with that collected in London, and for the Colony to contribute annually, say £20,000.0.0, ** some other fair fixed sum which might be arranged, to the General Post Office in London, a system of this kind would muck lessen the work of the Bookkeeper and the bulk of the accounts here, and I think be much more satisfactory to the Departanent, the Local Government and the Imperial Post Office, and if such an arrangement is entertained by the authorities in London * simple system of accounts might easily be adopted to suit all parties concerned,-I have the house to be, Sir, your most obedient SerraRI,
F. W. MITCHELL,
Postmaster Gaveral,
The Honourable
W. T. MERCER, Esquire,
Colonial Secretary,
Hongkong.
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