9. No portion of the community is so determined to send unpaid letters if possible as the less intelligent class of Indian traders, some of whom will wander round the Office trying window after window to get their letters accepted without payment. In many other respects they are the most troublesome class of people the Post Office here has to deal with. The careless way in which they write the addresses on letters, the apathy with which they view delay or loss of correspondence, their ineradicable belief that an unpaid letter travels more safely than a paid one, and their incomprehensible custom of refusing correspondence on the ground that they do not know the writer, or "that they do not expect a letter"-all these things make them difficult to deal with in Postal business, and to these must be added their cherished habit of affixing stamps on the wrong side of the envelope, their belief that the person to whom a Registered Letter is addressed is bound to take it in, and, worst of all, a way they have of complaining that Registered Letters have not been delivered, because an answer has not arrived by the very first opportunity, although perhaps there was hardly time for an answer at all.
10. It has been necessary on two occasions to set in motion the law as to giving accurate notice of the departures of steamers, and several times to threaten to do so. It may be conceded at once that steamers cannot start to the minute, and therefore, unless they are to lose time by waiting for fixed hours, absolutely exact notice is impossible, but it has always been the aim of this Department to read the Ordinance in a reasonable spirit, and not to make difficulties about trifles. Perhaps as the result of this, an idea seems to have grown up that any sort of notice will do for the Post Office. Agents notify their steamers to start at noon when they must know perfectly well they will never move before evening or perhaps well into the following day. It may possibly be necessary to take further steps to establish a better state of things, but it is hoped the publication of these remarks may suffice. An hour in the business portion of the day, or two hours at other times (from dark to daylight not counting however) is the extreme margin which should be allowed to elapse without a supplementary notice.
11. The contract mails will probably continue to leave on Monday during half the year. A letter on this subject from the London Post Office is printed in the Appendix.†
12. In July last the P. & O. Packet Pekin broke her shaft soon after leaving Singapore on the outward voyage. The mails were brought on here by the Deucalion (Blue Funnel line) reaching this Colony and Shanghai four days after the respective contract times. A further delay of two hours in the delivery of papers &c., resulted at Shanghai, as there was not time to sort them in this Office.
13. In February last the Japanese packet Sumida Maru, which had on board the French and English Mails for Kobe and the English Mail for Yokohama, broke a piston and had to put into Amoy in distress. After a good deal of telegraphing it was decided to send the mails on from Amoy to Shanghai, and thence through the Inland Sea. The Mitsu Bishi packet waited for them at Shanghai nearly a week, and they did not reach their destinations until after considerable delay.
14. The forwarding of mails to Japan, since the P. & O. packets between Hongkong and that country ceased to be subsidised, has proved a somewhat difficult matter-difficult at least to carry out to the satisfaction of all concerned. Of two steamers starting about the same time for the same place, it is often impossible to form even a reasonable guess as to which will arrive first. The Agents frequently cannot tell to within 12 hours or so how soon their vessels will start. When the chance of catching other packets at Shanghai or Yokohama is added, with a doubt whether the printed Time Table is being strictly observed, the problem often does become rather tangled. Difficult as it may be, however, to point out the best route a day before, it is particularly easy to do so a week after, when all the possibilities have become certainties, a distinction perhaps somewhat overlooked by impatient expectants of the Mail, who fail to see why the Post Office could not be equally wise before the event. The rule of this Office has been No risks, and, failing the appointment of an Agent of the Japanese Post Office or communities-to choose the routes for mails, it will be adhered to.
15. General International Statistics for the settlement of accounts were taken in May last. They passed off smoothly and without any irregularity. The arrears in accounts alluded to in previous Reports have mostly disappeared, as much so in fact as they ever will. It is not possible, under the Union system, to have accounts as closely up to date as when each month's transactions were accounted for at the end of that month.
16. A considerable increase is observed in the correspondence for Union Countries (other than the United States) forwarded to San Francisco for distribution. That for Canada forms the largest item, but Chinese letters for Hawaii (which has entered the Union) bid fair to outnumber it. Many Chinese letters are also forwarded to Cuba, Peru, and Chili, a few even to Costa Rica and the Argentine Republic.
Indian Post Office Manual. Preface, p. XXII.
Since the above was written Tuesday has been fixed for the English Mail.
A case in point may be cited, as follows:-The English Mail arrived here per Kaisar-i-hind on January 9th (1882), and went on to Shanghai the next morning. The Nagasaki Mail would have been sent up in her as usual, but that the Sunda was advertised to start for Nagasaki direct on the 11th, and was thus undoubtedly the better opportunity. The Mail was therefore kept for the direct steamer, but scarcely had the Kaisar-i-hind left the harbour than the Sunda's departure was indefinitely postponed, thus keeping the Nagasaki Mail here for some days.
9. No portion of the community is so determined to send unpaid letters if: possible as the less intelligent class of Indian traders, some of whom will wander round the Office trying window after window to get their letters accepted without payment. In many other respects they are the most troublesome class of people the Post Office here has to deal with. The careless way in which they write the addresses on letters, the apathy with which they view delay or loss of correspondence, “their ineradicable belief that an unpaid letter travels more safely than a paid one, and their incom
prehensible custom of refusing correspondence on the ground that they do not know the writer, or "that they do not expect a letter "*-all these things make them difficult to deal with in Postal' business, and to these must be added their cherished habit of affixing stamps on the wrong side of the envelope, their belief that the person to whom a Registered Letter is addressed is bound to take it in, and, worst of all, a way they have of complaining that Registered Letters have not been delivered, because an answer has not arrived by the very first opportunity, although perhaps there was. hardly
((
time for an answer at all.
·
10. It has been necessary on two occasions to set in motion the law as to giving accurate notice of the departures of steamers, and several times to threaten to do so. It may be conceded at once that steamers cannot start to the minute, and therefore, unless they are to lose time by waiting for fixed hours, absolutely exact notice is impossible, but it has always been the aim of this Department to read the Ordinance in a reasonable spirit, and not to make difficulties about trifles. Perhaps as the result of this, an idea seems to have grown up that any sort of notice will do for the Post Office. Agents notify their steamers to start at noon when they must know perfectly well they will never move before evening or perhaps well into the following day. It may possibly be necessary to take further steps to establish a better state of things, but it is hoped the publication of these remarks may suffice. An hour in the business portion of the day, or two hours at other times (from dark to daylight not counting however) is the extreme margin which should be allowed to elapse without a supplementary notice.
11. The contract mails will probably continue to leave on Monday during half the year. A letter on this subject from the London Post Office is printed in the Appendix.†
12. In July last the P. & O. Packet Pekin broke her shaft soon after leaving Singapore on the outward voyage. The mails were brought on here by the Deucalion (Blue Funnel line) reaching this Colony and Shanghai four days after the respective contract times. A further delay of two hours in the delivery of papers &c., resulted at Shanghai, as there was not time to sort them in this Office.
13. In February last the Japanese packet Sumida Maru, which had on board the French and English Mails for Kobe and the English Mail for Yokohama, broke a piston and had to put into Amoy in distress. After a good deal of telegraphing it was decided to send the mails on from Amoy to Shanghai, and thence through the Inland Sea. The Mitsu Bishi packet waited for them at Shanghai nearly a week, and they did not reach their destinations until after considerable delay.
14. The forwarding of mails to Japan, since the P. & O. packets between Hongkong and that country ceased to be subsidised, has proved a somewhat difficult matter-difficult at least to carry out to the satisfaction of all concerned. Of two steamers starting about the same time for the same place, it is often impossible to form even a reasonable guess as to which will arrive first. The Agents frequently *cannot tell to within 12 hours or so how soon their vessels will start. When the chance of catching other packets at Shanghai or Yokohama is added, with a doubt whether the printed Time Table is being strictly observed, the problem often does become rather tangled. Difficult as it may be, however, to point out the best route a day before, it is particularly easy to do so a week after, when all the possibilities have become certainties, a distinction perhaps somewhat overlooked by impatient expectants of the Mail, who fail to see why the Post Office could not be equally wise before the event. The rule of this Office has been No risks, and, failing the appointment of an Agent of the Japanese Post Office or communities-to choose the 1outes for mails, it will be adhered to.
15. General International Statistics for the settlement of accounts were taken in May last. They passed off smoothly and without any irregularity. The arrears in accounts alluded to in previous Reports have mostly disappeared, as much so in fact as they ever will. It is not possible, under the Union system, to have accounts as closely up to date as when each month's transactions were accounted for at the end of that month.
16. A considerable increase is observed in the correspondence for Union Countries (other than the United States) forwarded to San Francisco for distribution. That for Canada forms the largest item, but Chinese letters for Hawaii (which has entered the Union) bid fair to outnumber it. Many Chinese letters are also forwarded to Cuba, Peru, and Chili, a few even to Costa Rica and the Argentine Republic.
Indian Post Office Manual. Preface, p. XXII.
Since the above was written Tuesday has been fixed for the English Mail.
1
A case in point may be cited, as follows:-The English Mail arrived here per Kaisar-i-hind on January 9th (1882), and went on to Shanghai the next morning. The Nagasaki Mail would have been sent up in her as usual, but that the Sunda was advertised to start for Naga-r saki direct on the 11th, and was thus undoubtedly the better opportunity. The Mail was therefore kept for the direct steamer, but scarcely had the Kaisar-i-hind left the harbour than the Sunda's departure was indefinitely postponed, thus keeping the Nagasaki. Mail here for some days.:it
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