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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

LKEE

Reference :-

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON|

C.O. 133/26 ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE

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adoption of this route has been urged by the Italian government on the grounds that necelerations have taken place in the Italian Railroad services, and that improvements have been made in the harbor of Brindisi. The public nevertheless do not appear to have sufficient confidence in the facilities afforded and only 308 letters and 71 papers have been sent in the 8 Mails despatched up to this date, and about an equal number have been received since the inauguration of the new route in London in September. 13. The Postmaster General of the United States has discontinued the employment of the Postal Agents heretofore in charge of the Mails conveyed by the Pacific Mail Steam Ship Company's steamers on the line between Hongkong and San Francisco, and their duties have been assigned to the Pursers of these vessels; the French Post Office lins also withdrawn the Post Office Agents on the line between Hongkong and Shanghae; the Mails by French Packets are now exchanged between this Office and the British Post Office at Shanghae instead of as formerly, with the Post Office Agents on board those Packets.

14. A reciprocal exchange of hooks, pamphlets and patterns, in the Mails transmitted between Hongkong, Yokohama, San Francisco and the United States generally, by the United States' Packets has been carried into operation.

15. The whole of the postal Agencies in China and Japan have been thoroughly inspected during the past year, and the result of the examination thereof was submitted in my letter of the 23rd September last, No. 57.

16. The advantages derivable from occasional personal inspections of these Agencies are manifold, both to the public and to the members of the postal service generally. Opportunities are thereby afforded to the Postmaster General of seeing with his own eyes that adequate facilities are at all thes afforded to the Public in the receipt, transmission and delivery of their letters, and of eflecting such improvements, as circumstances may require. I therefore embody in this Report such portions of the Report of the tour of inspection as inay be useful.

17. At all the Ports, except Shanghae and Yokohama, the Post Office duties are performed by Consular Officers, (who are, in some cases, the junior Officers of the service;) and, on this account, it is not to be expected that the work can be so thoroughly doue as it would be by experienced Officers of this Department; at the same time, I observed that they took some interest in the effective fulfilment of the postal labor imposed upon then. A complete code of instructions for their use has been printed and forwarded for their guidance.

18. Arrangements have been made for the continuance of the amalgamation of the British and Local Post Offices at Shanghae.

19. Communication between Shanghae and Hongkong by the British and French Mail l'ackets and the numerous other vessels now running is constant, and under the new agreement the Local Post Office of Shanghae has undertaken to hand to the Agent of this Department all loose letters received from Hongkong. The British Office at Shanghae is largely availed of and the duties are per- formed satisfactorily to the public, who, among other advantages, reap the full benefit of the system of sorting their letters at sea, without any charge whatever. The system of sorting the Mails at sea between Hongkong and Singapore, and between Hongkong and Shanghae has been successfully carried on.

20. The building occupied conjointly by the British and Local Post Offices is not well situated. 21. A new Post Office has been erected at Yokohama on a plot of ground obtained from the Government of Japan, and it is now occupied. This building being near the Ilatoba and centrally situated, is found convenient and equal to the requirements of the public. The present prospects of this Agency are however by no means brilliant, and I feel sure that so.soon as the public have full con- filence in the regular and speedy transmission of Mails to the United Kingdom viâ San Francisco and New York much of the correspondence will be sent and received by that route.

22. In paragraph 12 of the Report of 19th July, 1867, it was estimated that some additional ex- penditure would be necessary at Yokohama, and since then a Clerk at $720 per annum and a Shroff át $216 per annum bave been appointed to the Agency there.

23. Yokohama was not at that time, however, a place of call for the Contract Packets, as it is now, and therefore all the revenue collected on Local letters sent and received accrued to the Colony; as these letters are now carried by the Contract Packets, almost exclusively, the revenue goes to the Imperial Post Office; in fact since the British Packets commenced running under Contract, the business of the Yokohama Post Office has been, with but little or no exception, for the benefit of the Imperial Post Office; at the same time, like the other Agencies, it collects and delivers letters the postage on which swells the general Colonial revenue of the Department.

24. The completion of the Pacific Railway from San Francisco to New York has necessarily diverted most of the letters for the United States from their former course of transmission by the English Packets, viâ Marseilles and viâ Southampton, to the more direct and quicker route now afforded by the United States' Packets running from Yokohama vià San Francisco.

25. The discontinuance of the British Mail Contract line between Shanghae and Yokohama has had an injurious effect upon the revenue of the Yokohama Post Office, whilst the French Post Office also deprives it of some of its business.

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26. At Nagasaki the opportunities of sending and receiving Mai's have considerably diminished, At present the United States' Mail Packets to and from Shangline afford the only regular means of communication, but as I mentioned in the Report of my tour, I was unsuccessful in the attempt 1 ande to get these vessels to carry the small English Mails between Shanghae and Nagasaki; arrangements have been made however under which some of the merchants at Nagasaki have their correspondence sent to firms at Shanghae who repost it at the American Post Office there to be forwarded in the United States' Mails to Nagasaki; and therefore some of the inconvenience which might otherwise have been experienced at Nagasaki has been averted; but much inconvenience, which I regret I am unable to remedy, is still felt from the non-receipt of home Mails at regular intervals; as it often occurs that wo or three Mails from home reach Nagasaki at the same time, owing to their having been delayed at Shanghac for want of an opportunity to send them across.

27. In view of the reduction in the business of the Post Office Agency at Nagasaki, the salary of the Agent has been reduced from £100 to £40 per annum; the Expenses of that Agency have recently been in excess of the revenue.

28. At Hiogo the Post Office Agency has been in existence 80 short a time that it is unnecessary o say more than, that from the representations made to me and from information gained on the spot, ts establishment will, I feel sure, be a boon to the inhabitants of Hiogo and the adjacent Ports of Kobe and Osaca.

29. At the ports of Swatow, Foochow, Ningpo and Nagasaki, the Consulates are so much more distant from the anchorage of the steamers than are the merchants' quarters, that very few letters, except those to be forwarded by the Mail Packets from Hongkong, are put into the Post Offices, therefore most of the letters for Hongkong are placed loosely on board, and, in many cases, I fear, are handed to the steamers' Agents here, who distribute them without the agency of the Post Office, a practice which I regret to say all efforts to put an end to have failed; it is, however, right to that

say the Agents of the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company, of the Messageries Impériales and of the Pacific Mail Company are exceptions.

30. At Canton and Ainoy, although the Consulates are conveniently situated, the number of Jetters for Hongkong which are posted is very inconsiderable, in fact at all the places mentioned in this and the previous paragraphs, the Post Offices are used chiefly for the receipt and delivery of letters to and from home, the sale of Postage Stamps, and, in exceptional cases, for the registration of letters. I am satisfied that no possible alteration that could be made would induce the merchants to send their letters through the Post Office while the steamers are closer at hand, and while they offer the advantage of a later receipt of letters than the Post Office can possibly give.

31. Under the provisions of Clause 3 of Ordinance No. 8 of 1862 correspondence sent between Canton and Hongkong is exempt from the exclusive privilege of the Post Office, and it is therefore not to be expected that the public will pass their letters through the Post when they can lawfully send and receive them otherwise free of charge.

32. The mumber of Chinese letters daily sent between Hongkong and Canton is very large. Various Offices for their receipt exist at both places, and on the passage they are taken charge of by a man who travels for the purpose, or by some one connected with the steamer who has a share in the enterprise; on arrival they are delivered and a fee of about 30 cash or three cents each is collected; no system of prepayment of postage exists.

33. It is not, in my opinion, desirable to interfere with the practice, as every means would of course he taken by the Chinese to evade the law if it were made incumbent upon them to send their letters through this Office, so long as the rate of postage exceeded that charged by private Offices, and were it reduced to the same level, the Revenue would probably be more than swamped by the additional expenditure incurred. As regards the correspondence of foreigners it is very doubtful whether or pot they would avail themselves to any extent of the security the Post Office" affords if the postage

was considerably reduced.

34. The Money Order system is much used at Amoy. There is no office there however, the place not containing inhabitants enough to justify the establishment of a Money Orler Office yet, even if there were no difficulties in the way of doing so; but the Post Office Agent procures Money Orders from this Office for all who apply to him, remitting with his requisition the probable amount required to pay for them, and receiving back any excess in such remittances in Postage Stamps.

35. It was suggested in the Chamber of Commerce here on the 9th August last, that, on account of the vast importance of the trade of Foochow and the great revenue which the Imperial Govern- ment derives from the duties on Ten exported therefrom, and also because it sometimes occurs that the Foochow steamer reaches Hongkong just after the homeward Mail has departed, or in too short a time before her departure, to enable the merchants to do their business and save the Mail, that steainers should be subsidized for carrying the Mails to and from Hongkong at the cost of the Imperial Post Office.

36. Whatever the claims of the Foochow Community or those of their agents here may be to such an advantage, I look upon the matter as one of some importance to this Colony, and I feel satisfied that unless some step is taken to improve the Mail service, much of the business which now comes to Hongkong, will with the frequent and regular communication afforded by the four steamers run- ning to Shanghac, diverge to that place.

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