PUBLIC RECORD OFICE
No. 30.
22
41.
GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.
Ilis Excellency the ACTING GOVERNOR directs the publication of the subjoined Annual Report of
the Hongkong General Post Office for the Year 1865.
By Order,
Colonial Secretary's Office, Hongkong, 26th February, 1866.
W. H. ALEXANDER, Acting Colonial Secretary.
No. 7.
GENERAL POST OFFICE, HONGKONG, 22nd February, 1886.
SIR,-In transmitting for the information of His Excellency the Acting Governor this my Sixth Annual Report of the Revenue and Expenditure and general working of this Department, being that for the year 1865, I have the honor to point out, that, although the figures shew that the revenue which the Colonial Government acquired in the year 1865 is somewhat less than it was in the year 1864, yet this apparent diminution is to a great extent accounted for by the altered system of Accounts which was brought into operation on the 1st March last, under which the profits on the Remittances made to London have not been credited to the Post Office, as was the case in former years, and as these from March to December 1864 amounted to $10,653.05, it is proper, for the sake of comparison, to add this sum to the Revenue actually received;-in the year just closed the profit un exchange in the Remittances of Revenue from Shangbae, was $624.68 less than it was in 1864.
The revenue collected at the Packet Agency Shanghae on loose letters (i. e. letters carried outside the Mails), in the year 1801 amounted to $3,408.18, whilst that received in the year 1855 was $1,672.01 only; this reduction of revenue is occasioned by an arrangement which obtains there for the masters of Vessels arriving at Shangbae to deliver all their loose letters at the Local Post Office; these formerly were taken to the British Packet Agency, and it is proper to remark that the Steamers of the Peninsular and Oriental Company are not exceptions to this rule, although the Messageries Imperiales Packets deliver the correspondence conveyed by them, to the French Post Office at Shanghae.
To find the Colony's share of Revenue for the past year, the change in the mode of keeping the Accounts has made it necessary to deduct from the total revenue received, the amount remitted to the General Post Office in London, and for the same cause it became necessary that the debts amounting to $0,839.93 due to that Office by the Packet Agents at the Ports in China and Japan should be taken over by the Colony, and it is therefore also necessary in comparing the Colonial Revenue of 1865 with that of 1804, to add that sum to last year's revenus.
The difference betwe:a the amounts outstanding due to the Colony at the end of each of these years would be a very proper item to add to or deduct from. as the case might require, the last years revenue; but as in the year 1864 this was put down inclusive of the unsold postage Stamps on hand at the Packet Agencies, and in 1815 the sums due at these Agencies is properly estimated without the Stamps où hand, the difference under this head cannot, with any proper degree of certainty, be contrasted.
The comparative account then stands thus:
Total amount of Revenue (Imperial and Colonial) collected during the year 1865, Imperial portion of the same (£27,207.18.64),=)
against $86,341.11 revenue of 1804, the difference being made up principally, by
$192,143.00
130,888.03
leaving Colonial portion,..
€1,257.08
Profit on remittances made to London in 1804, the corresponding item not being included in
Post Office revenue for 1805,...
Excess of Profits on Remittances from Shanghine in 1864 over those of 1865, Amount due to London Olice on the 1st March, 1865, paid by the Colony under the changed
plan of keeping accounts, .
10,653.05
624.69
6,839.98
$70,374.74
which shows a decrease of £6,000.87 in the ordinary Colonial Revenue of 1885, as compared with that of 1804.
This decrease may be accounted for in numerous ways, such as the inroads the French Post Office has made upon the Revenus by the extension of the Frenc's line of Packets from Shanghae to Yokohama; the extended operations of the Slanghas Local Post Ofice, and the depressed state of Commerce in China and Japan.
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