11. Means have been devised for forwarding correspondence for Canada, the West Indies, Brazil Peru, &c., by way of San Francisco; also for sending letters for India by the one French Packet a month which formerly carried no Indian Mail, thus making five regular opportunities for Indian correspondence in every month. The somewhat clumsy expedients, by means of which alone thes objects could be attained, will soon, it is hoped, he superseded by the simpler and uniform metlo] of the Postal Union.
12. After considerable delay, due to the miscarriage of an official letter, a satisfactory Postal Convention has been concluded with Netherlands India.
13. Correspondence has taken place on the question of a Postal Convention with Queensland, a sixpenny tariff via Torres Straits being the object in view. But the difficulties of seu-conveyance have not yet been sufficiently overcome to allow of the matter being laid officially before you.
14. It has been ascertained that the Australian Post Offices deliver free all private ship cor respondence arriving in Mails. The antiquated and vexatious charge of 4d. a letter, formerly leviel here even on prepaid correspondence received by private ship from Australia, has therefore been abandoned. This Office now delivers free in China and Japan all ship mails from all parts of the world, with one trifling exception. † Loose letters are of course charged as formerly.
15. A misunderstanding, for which this Office was not responsible, having been removed, the Torres Straits Route is now open for New Zealand us for other parts of Australasia. The packets t this line have made more regular passages during the year, and all correspondence for Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, New Zealand, or Tasmania is sent by them unless it be specially directed for the route via Galle.
16. The Local Money Order system has been supplemented by an arrangement for the purchase of Hongkong Postage Stamps at the Agencies of this Office, thus fucilitating the exchange of small sums of money anywhere on the Const.
17. Correspondence has taken place as to the extension of the Money Order system to Queensland. New South Wales, the Straits Settlements, and India. A regulation of the Postal Union, somewhat too stringent perhaps, forbids the sending of coin in even a Registered Letter. This makes it desirable to extend Money Order facilities as widely as possible. Formerly, a small sun could be remitted to almost any part of the world by enclosing gold coin in a Registered Letter.
18. Some difficulty is enused by the necessity for providing for Chinese Remittances. The con fusion likely to be caused by Chinese names, and the various ways of Anglicising them, may be preventel by a very simple expedient. But a more serious impediment, especially with regard to the Straits Settlements, is the fact that many of the Payees of the Money Orders would reside in the interior of China, quite out of reach of any of the Agencies of this Office. This is a point which should be faken into account by those who think that sweeping measures ought to be brought to bear on Chinese correspondence. No doubt many systematic evasions of l'ostal law are practised by Chinese, but some of them at least arise from the fact that the Chinaman can do for himself, easily, cheaply, and safely, what the British Post Office cannot do for him at all.
17. When the Sunfoo was wrecked in 1874, a large number of Chinese money-letters were removed from her and handed to this Department. They were all for villages beyond Amoy, to which Port they were sent. But neither by advertising nor by any other of the means employed was one of those letters delivered. After lying at Amoy for some time, and being advertised in Chinese here, they were all returned to Singapore.
18. If the Chinese generally were inclined to ask for Governinent aid in disposing of their cor respondence, and to complain of their own existing arrangements, there would be very good reason for interfering with them. But probably the only Chinese dissatisfied with native Postal facilities are those who see their way to making a large profit out of a monopoly, and it must be remembered that representations as to the insecurity of the Chinese post are generally coloured to suit the interested views of these people.
19. On the great trade routes where Chinese are pushing their way, as for instance between Hongkong and San Francisco, or between Hongkong and Australia, there is an increasing tendency to use the Foreign Post Office, as Western business habits become more and more adopted.
20. A new Post Office Ordinance was drawn during the year by the Honourable J. BRAMSTON Attorney-General, and has been passed. It "brings the Postal law of the Colony into accord with the "actual state of the Service as it has grown up since the Ordinance of 1862 was passed. It provide "for changes which may be found necessary...............and makes such amendments as experience ha "shewn to be desirable." What has been said above as to Chinese correspondence will explain why n additional legislation on this subject was recommended when the Ordinance was under consideration At the same time it ought to be noted that the Singapore Post Office appears to be meeting with som success in its efforts to promote a use of the Post Office by Chinese, efforts which, it is hoped, have been seconded here in every way which could be suggested. The two Colonies do not, however. occupy exactly similar positions, and only a careful observation of the Singapore experiment can decid whether it might advantageously be tried in Hongkong. The experience of another year may b necessary for the maturing of any scheme for Chinese Sub-Post Offices here.
+ The exception is Manila, which will be a Union Country after April 1st.
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