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POST-OFFICE NOTICES.
4. The following articles cannot be sent by Post at all:-Glass, Liquids, Gunpowder, Matches, Candles, Soap, Indigo, Dye-stuffs, or whatever is dangerous to the Mails, or offensive or injurious to persons dealing with them.
PARCELS. The public is reminded that, in China and Japan, there is no such thing as Parcel Post. Much trouble and disappointment are caused by persistent attempts to sen 1 small valuable trifles through the Post. Fans, Curios, Articles of *Dress, Fancy Work, and similar presents are continually being refused, the senders having often spent more in Postage than would have paid the freight by steamer. No refund can be made on such parcels of the value of Stamps obliterated before the nature of the contents was discover d.
PATTERNS. Some difficulty is experienced in obtaining a general understanding of what is a Pattern. It is a bona fide sample of goods which the sender has for sale, or of goods which he wishes to order. It is to consist of the smallest possible quantity compatible with shewing what the goods are, and must have no intrinsic value.
Soldiers' and Sailors' Letters.
Privates in H.M. Arny or Navy, Non-commissioned Officers, Army Schoolmasters (not superintending or First Class) or Schoolmistresses, may now, under the usual Regulations, send half-ounce Le ters to the United Kingdom via Brindisi or Marseilles for Threepence (6 cents) each instead of Fourpence as before, or for one penny (2 cents) viâ Southampton. But if these letters exceed half an ounce in weight, they will be charged as or inary Correspondence.
Hongkong Postage Stamps will prepay this class of Correspondence exactly the same as Imperial Stamps.
Officers and men of H.M. Fleet alone have the privilege of using British Postage Stamps, whether of the value of one penny, or of higher values.
Registration to Bangkok.
Her Britannic Majesty's Consul General for Siam has been good enough to make arrangements by means of which correspondence can be Registered to Bangkok, at the usual local charge of 8 cents.
To provide means of remitting small sums of money to or from this Colony and between the Ports of China and Japan, the Postmasters and Agents of this Office are allowed (but not required) to purchase Hongkong Postage Stamps from foreign residents.
Between Hongkong and Shanghai, or Hongkong and Yokohama, however, in either direction, Money-Orders must be used.
The Stamps tendered for sale must not exceed $25 in value, must be perfectly clean, in good condition, and in strips of at least two, as no separate Stamps will be purchased. They must be presented personally or accompanied by a note.
The Postmaster or Agent may postpone purchasing if his public funds in hand are not sufficient, and he will refuse to purchase in any case which appears doubtful or suspicious. He is allowed to charge a commission of one per cent on all Stamps purchased.
Letters containing Stamps should be Registered, and the Stamps should be secured from observation.
Mails for India by French Packet.
It has been customary not to close Mails for India by each French Mail Packet, but only by those which meet a branch Packet at Galle to carry the correspondence on, that is to say, by each alternate French Mail.
To provide, however, for the transmission of letters to India by the intermediate Packets, by which hithert no Indian Mails have been made up, it has been arranged
• But not warrant Officers, viz., Assistant Engineer, Gunner, Boatswain, or Carpenter..