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HONGKONG POSTAL GUIDE,
(a) Boxholders may also send Patterns to the same places in the same way. Envelopes
containing Patterns may be wholly closed if the nature of the contents be first ex- hibited or stated to the Postmaster General, as he may consider necessary, and approved by him. Printed Circulars may be inserted in such Pattern Packets. (ƒ) The addresses of covers posted under Rules d and must be complete. That is to say, on such covers as are not addressed to heads of houses, the addressee's residence or place of business must be added. If this be not done the correspondence will be returned to be fully addressed.
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160.—As to excepting the correspondence of individuals from the general delivery, seo para- graph 147. Letters for persons whose addresses are known will not be kept Poste Restante except by special permission of the Postmaster General and for satisfactory reasone.
161-Registered lettera cannot be delivered with the same promptitude as ordinary corres- pondence, though in the case of the British mail the delay is made as short as possible by means of completing the registration at sea. Still, the postman who delivers them has to wait at each house whilst a receipt is signed. When registered correspondence is required in great haste, the best way is to call for it.
162.-By the Post Office Ordinance (No. 10 of 1876) all transmission of correspondence from or delivery of correspondence in Hongkong, except through the Post Office, in illegal and subject to heavy penalties. Loose correspondence duly stamped way, however, be put on board vessels after the mails are closed at the Post Office. The Stamps should be cancelled by the sender. If the Port of destination be one where there is no Hongkong Agency, further Postage will, of course, be charged (see paragraph 64). The Stamps affixed bere should nevertheless be cancelled, as, if left clean, they may endanger the mfety of the letter. This does not apply to letters posted in recognised moveable boxes. A supplementary mail may be closed on board at the discretion of the Postmaster General. The penalty for not giving proper facilities to make it up and to quit the vessel is $500.
163. Shipmasters must deliver any mails or correspondence which may be on board to the Post Office without delay, and make a declaration that they have done so, under penalty of $500, There is always some person at the Post Office to receive mails, which need not, however, be landed later than 9 F.M., or earlier than 5.30 A.M., excepting, of course, the Contract Maile.
164.----Any person or firm about to despateli a vessel to any place out of the Colony must send the first notice to the Post Offics. In regard to sailing ships, the rule practically is that if notice be not specially asked for it is not required.
165.—A shipmaster is bourd to take mails and sign a receipt for them, under a penalty of $600, which sum may also be recovered for their non-delivery at destination,
166.—The master of a ship is beyond doubt the person responsible for the due delivery of mails. Every ship should be fitted with a locker or chest for maile, and nothing else should be put in it. As soon as a mail comes on board, whoever receives it should place it in the mail locker, and before arrival at any port this locker should be examined.
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