PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
No. 35.
GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.
His Excellency SIR RICHARD GRAVES MACDONNELL, C.B., directs the publication of the subjoined Annual Report of the Hongkong General Post Office, for the Year 1869.
By Command,
Colonial Secretary's Office, Hongkong, 28th March, 1870.
No. 19.
J. GARDINER AUSTIN, Colonial Secretary.
GENERAL POST OFFICE, HONGKONG,
19th March, 1870.
Sin, I have the honor to present to His Excellency SIR RICHARD GRAVES MACDONNELL, C.B., the tenth annual Report on the Post Office, being that for the your 1869.
2. The alterations of any importance which have taken place in the Postal service are as follows, viz: 3. The Imperial Postmaster General consented to an application made by the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company that they might be allowed to convey the Yokohama Mails from and to Ilongkong direct, instead of viâ Shanghae as theretofore.
4. This change doubtless afforded satisfaction to the mercantile community of Yokohama, whose correspondence with the United Kingdom via Suez is materially expedited by the new arrangement. 5. The time allowed for the voyage froin Hongkong to Yokohama during the north-east mon- soon is 170 hours, and in the south-west monsoon an extra allowance of 21 hours is made for the packets from Yokohama; but the service has not been satisfactorily performed hitherto. The Packets nearly always exceed the time allowed, and in one case more than 13 days were occupied in the voyage to Yokohama with a fair monsoon. These delays are attributable to various causes, the most import ant of which are that the direct course from Hongkong to Yokolama has been little travelled, and is not yet thoroughly surveyed, and furthermore it traverses the region of typhoons and constant bad weather. On two occasions during the year, the homeward British Contract Packets started after their appointed time owing to the late arrival of the Mail from Yokohama.
6. The practice referred to in the 15th paragraph of the last Report on the Post Office, under which Mails brought to Yokohama by United States Packets were forwarded to Shanghae by British Packets when time could be thus saved, and Mails brought to Hongkong by British Packets were, under similar circumstances, forwarded to Yokohama by United States' Packets, has, under the new plan for performing the Japan Mail service, necessarily come to an end.
7. The book and pattern post has been reestablished between Hongkong and the Australian Colonies.
8. A reduction has been made in the rates of postage chargeable on packets of printed papers and patterns if under 2 ounces in weight sent between the United Kingdom and Hongkong. This alteration applies to all printed papers other than newspapers, and to price lists, printed circulars and market reports.
9. The registration of letters and other descriptions of correspondence and the transmission of book packets and packets of samples of merchandize at low rates of postage, between Hongkong and ench of the Postal Agencies in China and Japan, and also between any two of such Agencies, has been sanctioned both as regards articles sent in the Mails by Private Ships and those sent by the British Contract Packets.
10. Arrangements have been completed for the transınission of Mails by the fast Opium steamers plying between Calcutta, the Straits, and Hongkong. These steamers are now classed as Indian Mail Packets, instead of as private vessels, and the correspondence thus conveyed is governed by the same rules as to rates of postage and conditions of transmission as govern the correspondence sent by the British Contract Packets.
11. The privilege granted some years ago to Officers serving on board Her Majesty's ships of war abroad, of sending and receiving their letters at a reduced rate of postage, and which was subsequently extended to Officers in the Army serving abroad and in the Colonies, ceased at the end of the year.
12. The route by Brindisi has been adopted since. Xovember last for the transmission of letters and papers addressed to the United Kingilom and to places beyond the United Kingdom. The
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