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HONGKONG POSTAL GUIDE.
497
become quite rotten after about two years in this climate, and not infrequently fall to pieces in transit, thus leading to complaints that the letters have been opened.
Private Boxes.
143.-Private Boxes may be rented in the offices at Hongkong and Shanghai. The fee is $10 a year payable in advance. This is a Government fee, and does not, as commonly supposed, go to the Postmasters.
144.—Each boxholder is supplied with an account book free, but must himself provide at least two stout bags (Shanghai firms require four) marked with his name in English and Chinese on both sides. Chinese Nankin makes the best bags for this purpose. They should be without strings, but have a couple of iron rings at the mouth for suspending. Boxholders should insist on their coolies returning these bags to the Post Office as soon as emptied, or at any rate not later than next morning. The only safe way to empty a bag is to turn it inside out.
145.-Each boxholder's coolie must be provided with a stout ticket or badge of wood, metal, This will enable him to or pasteboard, bearing his employer's name in English and Chinese. obtain letters whenever a mail arrives.
146.-The advantages of renting a box are many. It secures a quicker and more accurate delivery of correspondence. Unpaid letters are delivered to boxholders without the delay of demanding payment, change, &c., as they are charged to his account. The boxholders of Hong- kong and Shanghai send bags down in the mail steamer to be filled by the marine officer. Box- holders are allowed to post their letters in sealed covers or boxes, and to mark their Postage Stamps (see paragraph 116). They receive free copies of all notices issued by the Post Office, tables of rates, &c. Many inconveniences are saved to them by the facility for charging their accounts with small deficiencies of postage, when there is no time to return a short-paid letter. This, however, is only done as an exception, when the letter cannot go on unpaid, no boxholder being allowed to make a practice of sending short-paid correspondence, or letters to be stamped (see paragraph 117). Boxholders are also allowed certain privileges as to posting local corres- pondence unstamped (see paragraph 159c).
147.-As a general rule, requests to keep the letters of one individual out of the box of the firm to which he belongs or belonged cannot be complied with so long as his letters are directed to that firm. Otherwise the whole correspondence of that firm would be subject to delay. The same rule applies to complimentary boxes, which are set apart to facilitate the delivery of letters to a whole set of addressees, whose correspondence should not be delayed for the convenience of one person.
148.-Boxholders' books are sent out for settlement on the first day of each month, and should be returned promptly. In case of any book not being returned within seven days, the boxholder is liable to be supplied and charged with a new one, the old one being destroyed on its return. As a general rule no information can be given as to the correspondence charged in these accounts, where it came from, &c. There is only one way to obtain such information, and that is to file the covers of all unpaid correspondence received.
149.-A box cannot be jointly rented by two or more persons or firms.
Hongkong Office.
150.-The Hongkong Office is open from 7 A.M. till 5 P.M. on week days. Mails arriving are distributed up to 9 P.M. (Sundays, 6 P.M.), or in the case of the Contract Mails outwards, gene- rally at any hour of the day or night, but if there be no steamers leaving early, the delivery of a Contract Mail may be postponed till daylight. The hour at which delivery of a Contract Mail was begun is notified in the public papers as a check upon servants. Those who are at the windows when they are opened are always served within ten minutes at most. The Money Order Office is open from 10 to 4, or 10 to 5 on mail days It closes at 1 on Saturdays.
151.-The Office is closed on Sundays and Public Holidays, unless there are steamers leaving, when mails are made up from 8 to 9 A.M. Should any one of the outward Contract Mails arrive on Sunday, or in the night, the office is kept open only long enough to get the necessary work done (from one to two hours) and is then closed, all the correspondence being sent out either at once, or the first thing next morning as the case may be.
152.-The following are the hours for closing the Contract Mails to Europe, &c. :-
Day of Departure—
ENGLISH MAIL. *
NOON.-Money Order Office closes.
2 P.M.-Registry of Letters ceases. Posting of all printed matter and patterns ceases. 3 P.M.-Mails closed, except for Late Letters.
3.10 P.M.-Letters may be posted with late fee of 10 cents until
3.30 P.M.-when the Post Office closes entirely.
3.40 P.M.-Late Letters may be posted on board the packet with late fee of 10 cents until
time of departure.
* In summer, an hour later throughout.