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292
No. 50.
GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.
The following Annual Report of the Hongkong General Post Office for the Year 1870, is published for general information.
By Command,
Colonial Secretary's Onice, Hongkong, 18th March, 1871.
No. 16.
は
J. GARDINER AUSTIN, Colonial Secretary.
GENERAL POST OFFICE, HONGKONG, 47th March, 1871.
S-I have the honor to lay before you for presentation to His Excellency Major General WHITFEILD, Lieutenant-Governor, "the eleventh Annual Report on the Post Office, being that for the year 1870.
2. The principal changes of interest which have taken place in the Postal Service during the year are as follows, viz :
3 The two Marine Sorters previously employed on the line between Hongkong and Shanghae have been withdrawn for general duty in this Office, and arrangements have been made for completely sorting the Mails for Shanghae before they leave Hongkong. By this change of system the resi dents of Shanghae obtain the advantage of having their letters, by both the English and French Packets, delivered immediately on arrival, and this without extra charge, the alteration having been made with a view to discourage the transmission of letters outside the Mails.
Similar arrangements have been made at the British Post Office at Shanghae to enable the letters for Hongkong to be despatched ready for immediate delivery on their reaching this Office. The Imperial Postinaster General has withdrawn the Officers employed in sorting the homeward Judian, China and Australian Mails, on board the Mediterranean Packets, the Mails from Hongkong are now therefore, subdivided in this Office, so as to facilitate the arrangements made for sorting them on their arrival in England.
4. The Director General of the Posts in France has consented to a proposal to send Closed Mails by the French Packets between this Office and the British Post Offices at Shanghae and Yokohama, instead of forwarding the correspondence for the community at those Settlements in the Mails for the French Post Offices, thereby accelerating the delivery of the local correspondence.
5. Sanction having been obtained to the Mails from London for Shangle and Yokolama which are brought to Hongkong by French Packet being delivered over to this Office, advantage has been taken of one or two opportunities of sending the Mails forward to Shanghae earlier than they would have reached their destination by the branch French Packet for Shanghae.
6. Arrangements have been completed under which correspondence brought from Batavia by French Packet to Singapore is sent to this Office by the first Packet leaving for longkong, instead of, as formerly, awaiting the departure of the next French Packet to China, which involved, in some cases, a delay of twenty days.
7. Arrangements have been completed under which British Closed Mails between Hongkong and Nagasaki, and between Hongkong and Hiogo, are conveyed from Shanghae and Yokohama respec- tively by means of the United States' Mail Packets; the demand made by the United States' Post Office for their conveyance has however necessitated a small extra rate of postage on correspondence thus conveyed, but the advantages gained for the Public by these arrangements are manifest.
8. The hour of despatch of the homeward British Mail Packets from Hongkong has been advan- tageously changed from 9 A.M. to Noon, making it conform to the hour of despatch of the French Packets.
9. With a view to averting the inconvenience which has sometimes been experienced here on account of the late arrival of the British Mail Packets from Yokoham, their departure from Yokohama has been made one day earlier than formerly.
10. The scale of progression of weight having half an ounce for its unit has been extended to let- ters sent between the British Post Offices in China and Japan, and Manila, Batavia, Saigon, Pondi- cherry, Bangkok, Labuan, Singapore, Penang, Malacca, Ceylon, India, Aden, Suez, Malta and the Ionian Islands; Gibraltar, and Spain and Portugal viâ Gibraltar.
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