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Yokohama
however mention, that I found much confusion attended the landing of the Mails from the want of a truck or cart to convey them from the Jetty to the Post Office. I remedied this by purchase of a cart which the Municipal Council promised to horse without any charge.
58. Conformably with His Excellency's minute of the 1st June, in which 1 was directed to make the most liberal arrangements, at all consistent with the possible requirements of the Government service for the continuance of the amalgamation of the British and Local Post Offices at Shanghai, I completed a new agreement, which has already received the sanction of the Governor in C. S. O. No. 2,176. I have, however, considered it proper to mention the matter in this report without introducing its conditions.
59. The Postmaster at Shanghai has been instructed to keep a record of the number of Loose letters from Hongkong which are delivered to him under this agreement, and of the postage derived therefrom, and also of any loss in revenue by the new concession given to the Local Post Office, and to report the result each six months, so that in the event of any change being expedient or desirable it may be effected without unnecessary delay.
60. I ascertained that the Municipal Council intend to erect a Telegraph. between the Custom House Jetty and the premises of the Local Post Office; and 1 have arranged in writing with the Secretary of the Council that the British Post Office shall have the use of it for Mail Steamer Signals during the Local Post Office hours. The Telegraph to be in the Local Post Office, and worked by the Council.
61. The salary of the Postinaster at Shanghai is £500 per annum, one moiety of which is paid by the Colony and the other by the Imperial Post Office. A Clerk at $720 per annum, a staff of Coolies costing $762 per annum, and the House Rent of $2,000 per annum, are paid at the cost of the Colony. The Marine Sorters are also employed on the line from Hongkong to Shanghai at Colonial expense.
62. The annual profit from this Agency to the Colonial Government is estimated at $1,753.52, whilst the actual gross revenue collected amounts to $45,281.24.
63. The number of foreign residents is about 1,126.
64. In addition to the British Post Office and the Post Offices maintained by the Municipal Council, both France and America maintain Postal Establish- ments at Shaughai; these Offices are inconveniently situated in different parts of the settlement.
65. I had it in my mind to endeavour to ascertain whether any general amalgamation of the whole of the Post Offices could be effected, but from all the information I could gather on the spot, it appears to me that any such arrangement will have to be negociated with the different Governments at home.
66. With the three opposing Post Offices, particularly the United States Office, through which much of the correspondence for America which was formerly sent through the Agency of this Department to be forwarded by British Packet, is now transmitted, I fear the prospects either of increased usefulness or increased revenue are not promising; so far, however, no very marked reduc- tion of business has been observed.
67. At Yokohama, Postmaster John Simpson, Esq., the business is carried on in a portion of the old Consulate which His Excellency Sir Harry Parkes, Her Majesty's Minister in Japan, has gratuitously placed at the service of the Govern-
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ment until the end of the year, this is, however, ill adapted to the wants of the service and inconveniently situated. Sir Harry Parkes has also, for the same period, placed a bungalow, at the service of the Postmaster, as a residence, at a rent of $54 a month.
68. A new Post Office is, however, being erected, and it is expected that it will be ready for occupation by the end of next month.
69. The postal duties here were transferred from the hands of a Consular Officer in July, 1867 to an Officer sent from the Hongkong Post Office. The increased expense incurred by this measure was very considerable and amounted to an annual total of over £800 $3,840, £500 of which is paid by the Imperial Post Office. This expenditure has since been increased by the appointment of a Clerk at $720 per annum, and an outlay of about $10,000 which is being made on the building now nearly completed.
70. It was expected that this outlay would have been justified by the extended accommodation, which, under improved organization, the public should have gained, and by a corresponding increase of revenue; but I regret to state that this has not been the case. In the report (19 July, 1867, Paragraph 12) of the previous inspection of the Postal Agencies in China and Japan, it was estimated that, especially on account of improvements then about to be made at Yoko- hama, the cost to the Colony of the maintenance of these Agencies would be increased by about $1,000 per annum. 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.
71. 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 viâ San Francisco. These letters are therefore posted at the American Post Office at Yokohama. At the same time, it is satisfactory, from a Colonial point of view, to observe that, whilst the corres- pondence for the United States now forwarded by the English Mails from Yokohama, and from Hongkong also, has much diminished, it is, so far as the Colonial Revenue is concerned, an advantage, because the Colony reaps the benefit of all the postage collected here on letters, &c., forwarded by the United States Packets, whereas it only gets a small portion of that sent by the English Packets, The best illustration that can be given on this point is that during the month of September last year, the Colony's share of the postage on letters sent to the United States by the English Contract Packets amounted to $28.50 and in this month its revenue on letters sent by the American Packets amounts to $120.36.
72. The discontinuance of the British Mail Contract line between Shanghai and Yokohama has also 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.
73. The Pacific Mail Stean Ship Company is now ruming two Steamers a month between Shanghai and Yokohama, calling at Nagasaki and the various places in the inland sea of Japan, and 1 hear of an intention of increasing this number to
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