No. 52.
GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.
The following Annual Report of the Hongkong General Post Office for the Year 1872, is published for general information,
By Command,
Colonial Secretary's Office, Hongkong, 5th April, 1873.
No. 16.
CECIL C. SMITH,
Acting Colonial Secretary,
GENERAL POST OFFICE,
HONGKONG, 4th April, 1873.
SIR, I have the honor to present to His Excellency Governor SIR ARTHUR EDWARD KENNEDY, K.C.M.G., C.B., the Thirteenth Annual Report on the Post Office, being that for the year 1872.
2. The events and alterations worthy of note which have occurred in the Postal service are as follows, viz.:
3. In the early part of the year, a reduction of one penny per half-ounce was made in the postage on letters sent between the United Kingdom and Hongkong by French Packet thus equalizing the rate to thirty cents each half-ounce letter whether conveyed by British or French Packet, and the postage on newspapers for and through the United Kingdom was also reduced by one penny.
4. Under the new arrangement of the China and Australian Mail services, the Mails from the Australian Colonies and New Zealand for China now reach Point de Galle after the departure of the British Packets for Hongkong, and therefore these Mails are generally conveyed from Point de Galle to Hongkong by French Packet, and permission has been given for the transmission of the Mails from China for Australia to l'oint de Galle by French Packet on occasions when it may be desirable to do so, in order to overtake the Australian Mail Packet before her departure from Point de Galle for Sydney. The postage collected in Australia on letters for Hongkong, or in Ilongkong on letters for Australia, viz., one shilling per half-ounce letter, now covers the whole charge whether the letters are conveyed by British or by French Packet.
5. Arrangements have been nearly completed, under the, Postal Convention entered into by the Imperial Post Office and the Post Office of Austria, by which correspondence addressed to Austria and the several States of the Continent, may be transmitted by the British Mail Packets between this Office and the Post Offices at Trieste and Alexandria, paid or unpaid. Ilitherto pre-payment to Alexandria was compulsory, the postage from thence to destination being collected on delivery.
6. An altered system of keeping the accounts between this Office and the Imperial Post Office has been inaugurated, which is more comprehensive than that formerly employed, and lus imposed increased labor upon this Office.
7. The losses of Mails are fortunately of unfrequent occurrence; but during the past year the Mails from America for Hongkong, Macao, Canton, Swatow, Ainoy, Foochow, Manila, the Straits and India, were totally lost by the burning of the United States' Mail Packet America, in the bay of Yoko-
ibama.
8. The Mails, which left Yokohama on the 4th September last, were delayed in reaching Hong- Long by the breakdown of the British Mail Packet Olawa at Vosina, and were forwarded by the Following French Mail Packet.
9. On the China Coast, the steamers :
Suwonada, (Mails lost),
Sunshine, (Mails saved), Chukiang, (Mails lost),
Yeddo, (no Mails), Douglas, (Mails saved),
Rona, (Mails lost), Sedan, (Mails lost),
have been lost, and the Hailoong (Mails saved) went on shore at Breaker Point.
10. The return marked D ́shows that the number of United States' Mail Packets between San
Francisco and Hongkong was increased to two Packets a month during a few months of the past year, whilst towards the close of the year only one Packet a month arrived and departed.
11. A Post Office Agency has recently been established at Hankow, which has been found a great convenience to the inhabitants of that Port. The returns from the sale of postage stamps and the business of the Office has been, so far, satisfactory. Its chief patrons are the Russians who readily avail themselves of the security which the Post Oilice uffords, as contrasted with the practice which prevails at all the Ports of China and Japan of sending letters loosely on board, or to the steamers Agents.
12. During the year, Mr. D. J. BARRADAS, an Officer who had filled many important positious in e Department during a period of 17 years, and latterly that of Accountant, and who had always been a most zealous servant, was compelled, through a paralytic seizure, to retire.
13. The Money Order system with the mother country which has been continued during the year with benefit to the remitters of small sums of money has not been productive of sufficient com-