HONGKONG POSTAL GUIDE.
395
Postal cards have been issued by the Hongkong office, but there is no objection to the use of any recognised Postal card, if sufficient Hongkong Stamps be affixed to prepay it at half lette:· rate. No allowance can be made for the original postal value of the card.
29.-A list of the countries of the Postal Union is printed on the Table of Rates of Postage, to be had at the Post Offices and Agencies free. They may be said to be Europe, the United States, Canada, Newfoundland, Brazil, Peru, India, Japan, most Asiatic and British W. African Colonies, Egypt, Labuan, Mauritius, Seychelles, Jamaica, Trinidad, Guiana, Bermuda, with all French, Spanish, Portuguese, Danish, and Netherlands Colonies.
The general rates of Postage are as follow:-
Letters.... Registration..
Newspapers.
Books and Patterns..
12 cents per § oz.
8 cents.
2 cents each. 4 cents per 2 oz.
30.-Exceptions. When the correspondence has to make a transit by Brindisi and London (including correspondence for London) higher rates are charged, viz. :—
Letters...... Registration
Newspapers...
Books and Patterns....
31.-Exceptions. The following are the local and Town Rates.
16 cents per§ oz.
8 cents.
4 cents each. 6 cents per 2 oz.
Within any Town or Settlement, or between Hongkong, Can-}
ton, and Macao, in either direction, Between any other two of the following places (through
British Office) viz.: Hongkong, Macao, Ports of China, Bangkok, Cochin-China, Tonquin, and the Philippines, by Private Ship,...
Between Hongkong, Shanghai, and Yokohama, in either di-
rection, by British, French, or U.S. Mail Packet, Paroels; Between British Offices in China, Macao, Pakhoi,
Singapore, Penang, and Malacca ..................................
LETTERS PER OZ. TRATION.
REGIS-
NEW!- PAPERS.
BOOKS &
PARCELS
PAR lb.
PATTERNS. PER 2 OZ.
(INCLUDINÐ REGISTRY.
cents.
cents.
cents.
cents.
centa.
2
8
2
2
8
2
2
1
20
32.-Official Letters may be sent unpaid to certain public offices in London, as to which further information may be had on application. Official Unpaid Letters are sent via Southampton unless otherwise directed. Official Unpaid Books are charged as letters.
33.-All other correspondence is sent on by the first opportunity unless especially directed or apparently prepaid for some particular route. As a general rule the office is cleared for the first steamer going, the responsibility not being taken of deciding that a subsequent packet will arrive sooner. Correspondence marked for any particular steamer is sent by her,t unless her departure be postponed sine die, in which case it would be sent by the next opportunity. Firms at Swatow, Amoy, or Foochow should prepay their correspondence for the Brindisi route when there is a chance that the Coast mail may fail to catch the French Packet. Such correspondence goes on by first opportunity if marked By first mail, but not otherwise. If it is possible to overtake the French packet by a direct private steamer to Singapore it is done. No late fee is ever charged on Coast correspondence under any circumstances, the Late Fee being wholly confined to that originating in Hongkong. The direction Vid Marseilles should now be discontinued and the words, By French Packet used instead.
Unpaid and Loose Letters.
34.-As a general rule, unpaid correspondence from other Post Offices bears the mark T. (Tax to pay). Unpaid Newspapers and Postal Cards are not forwarded, but destroyed. Unpaid Books and Patterns are charged at Letter Rates, which are as follows:---
Viâ London and Brindisi..................... By any other route
22 cents per ✈ oz. 18 cents per † oz.
the value of the Postage Stamps, if any, being deducted. The values of foreign Stamps are not, however, allowed when the despatching office has omitted to mark them in francs and centimes, or in pence. Persons receiving unpaid letters which they suppose to be wrongly charged, should pay the postage, and keep the cover for the purpose of obtaining a refund (see paragraph 2). To keep or open the letter, whilst refusing to pay the postage, is a course open to many objections. No letter can be treated as Refused if it has been opened.
* First opportunity is not taken to mean by sailing ship, as nothing is sent by sailing ship but what is specially marked to be so sent, or in case there is little chance of a steamer.
In the case of Tea steamers leaving Foochow and Hankow for London, the Postal Agents have instructions to send on all letters for ports of call or the United Kingdom, either direct, or to catch the weekly Brindisi mail at Suez, acoord- ing to the prepayment (12 or 18 cents), but to keep all other correspondence for the Contract mails. Correspondence is not forwarded from Hongkong to London or the Continent via San Francisco, as there is no advantage in so forward- ing it.
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