228
1
prevents this line being a very important factor in the mail routine, but it has been possible to establish, by its means, a direct Parcel Post to most countries of the Continent of Europe. There was no parcel post to several important European countries (France for instance) whilst the others were served by a circuitous route via Gibraltar and London. Only six parcels were despatched by the German Packet which left on December 27th. It might be well for German residents in China, who are desirous of getting out any small articles from Germany, to let their friends in that country know that they can now forward parcels not exceeding three kilogrammes in weight to Hongkong or Chinese ports at a fixed postage of Fr. 4.25 per parcel.
7. The following figures as to the arrivals of the first two German mails in London may be of interest.
French Mail German Mail Left Hongkong September 2 September 3 September 30 October 1 Arrived in London October 4 October 4 Days 32 31/2 November 1 November 4 32 348. A correspondence has taken place between the Imperial Post Office, the Colonial Office, and this Government, as to the renewal of the Contract for transporting the English mails between Brindisi and Shanghai. There were only three offers, those, namely, of the P. & O. Co., of Mr. ALFRED HOLT, and of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company. One of the tenders of the first-named Company has been accepted, the mails to be carried for £265,000 a year for ten years. The report of this Department on the subject will be found in the Appendix (B).
9. Although the proposed trans-pacific line of steamers between Hongkong and British Columbia will not do much for this Colony so far as postal matters are concerned, its establishment is to be desired on many other grounds. Since the Pacific mail packets commenced running between this port and San Francisco, correspondence with Canada has increased in the most marked manner, chiefly owing no doubt to the numbers of Chinese who have settled in Victoria (B. C.) and elsewhere.
10. The dispute between the Pacific mail Company and the United States Government, which led to the discontinuance of carrying inward mails from San Francisco by the Company's vessels, has been adjusted, and the mails now arrive by every steamer from San Francisco as before. The inconvenience of having the return mails frequently despatched from here on the day fixed for the leaving of the English or French packet still continues.
11. There has been no extension of Money Order business during the year, which is not a matter of regret, as the Money Order system was really growing too fast for the limited resources of the Department to keep pace with it. It has been found absolutely necessary to have more clerical assistance in the Money Order Office, and this has been provided without very much difficulty. The want of room, however, is increasingly and severely felt, and a simple remedy is not so easy to devise. The business of the Money Order Office, like too much of the work of this Department, is carried on in a dark and crowded corner, where literally there is often not room to turn, and where every square inch is economised as if it were a ship's cabin.
12. This want of room is yearly becoming a more serious question. The Sanitary Board has pointed out that the quarters inhabited by the Chinese staff are overcrowded. They certainly are according to European ideas, even according to Chinese ideas there is not much room to spare. When foreign countries begin to claim their International right to have direct Parcel exchanges with Hongkong, it will be very difficult to see where the necessary room is to come from. A little additional space may be gained by building, and by a re-arrangement of verandahs &c., and then (unless it were possible to put on an additional storey) the limit will have been reached, and at much sacrifice of light and air. The Colony will be face to face with a demand for a new Post Office.
The present building was finished in 1865, and was evidently intended to be final. When the office is rebuilt it should be constructed, not for existing needs, but for those of twenty years later.
13. The Secretary of State has consented, in view of the representations of this Department, to allow the employment of unsalaried probationers, in the Post Office only. Postal work is distinctly work which has to be learnt, a beginner, however intelligent, is somewhat worse than useless; he gets in the way, has to be shown everything, and he makes mistakes. Hence the desirability of having an extra hand always in training, so that when a vacancy does occur it has not to be filled by a raw recruit.
14. It may perhaps be permissible to point out how, in this Office, unlike most other Post Offices, everything has to be filtered through two languages, one of which at least is but very imperfectly understood by many of the clerks who use it. At home a postman reads the address on a letter and delivers it accordingly. Here he depends on one or two hastily written Chinese characters, and if there happens to be a similarity in sound between the name as dictated, or as written, and some other name (Cooper and ... for instance) the chances of a mistake are very great.*
*A letter was handed to a Chinese postman who was told to take it to Mr. X. one that did not lend itself to Chinese pronunciation, the sobriquet of long-bearded X. had been invented to prevent errors. The same difficulty "Do you mean long-bearded X?" he asked. The name being applies to names of streets, &c. Richmond Terrace is called the New six houses, West Terrace the Old six houses, the Albany is Figure 1 Bow Che (because of its shape). Pedder's Hill is the Two Flagstaffs (though there are no flagstaffs there now), the Wellington Barracks are called after a Chinese character (冖) which their ground plan is supposed to resemble.
15. A Committee consisting of the Acting Harbour Master, the Director of the Observatory, and the Postmaster General was appointed to examine into the question of signalling the English mails from Kowloon Point. It was found impossible to devise any efficient and inexpensive signal which would not clash with the weather signals made at that station. It was therefore recommended that the use of the Kowloon Point gun for mail signals should be discontinued. Fortunately no inconvenience has arisen from the arrival of an unsignalled mail, a circumstance which may be due to an unusual freedom from fog during the year. It is to be hoped that some day all difficulties of this kind will be obviated telegraphic communication with the projected Gap Rock lighthouse, which would give the community here four hours notice of the approach of the mail.
16. In the meantime a direct telephone line between this Office and the Peak signal station is much to be desired. What with clouds, night-fall, flags blowing straight on end, and other circumstances, the Post Office too often obtains the minimum rather than the maximum of information from the Peak.
17. There have been two casualties during the year. The steamer Douglas was lost on February 10th with coast mails on board, which were not recovered. Communication between the Coast Ports and Hongkong having been interrupted for several days by the Chinese New Year holidays, the mails were unfortunately exceptionally heavy. The Madras was lost with a mail for this Office from Nagasaki. Most of the correspondence was subsequently recovered by H. M. S. Midge, and forwarded to destination.
18. The service to Japan has gone on fairly well, the mails having been forwarded without many excessive delays. The English mail of January 22nd was sent on to Kobe in the City of Rio (via Yokohama). It would have been better to keep it here a couple of days longer for the Zambesi, but at the time of its despatch it was not known when that vessel would start. The English mail of September 3 was sent to Yokohama in the Claymore, whereas it should have been kept for the Stettin. The German service was a little new at the time, the Stettin was not notified, and it escaped notice that there would be a German Packet leaving within a day or two. As far as is known these were the only occasions on which this Office failed to secure the earliest opportunity for a mail for Japan except one instance (the French mail for Yokohama of October 22nd) in which it was so doubtful which steamer would arrive first that this office would not take the responsibility of diverting the mail from its ordinary route via Kobe. Against these may be set the fact that, on July 13th, the Agent of the Pacific Mail Co. courteously detained the San Pablo for the arrival of the English mail, thus saving the Yokohama community a delay of probably at least two days.
19. The abolition of accounts with the London Office, referred to in the last Annual Report as under consideration, has been carried out, and our relations with the United Kingdom are now simply those of the Postal Union, with a special payment of £6,000 a year in addition. The saving of labour, copying, &c. is very considerable.
20. The state of several of our Postal Agencies, specially those of Amoy and Foochow, was taken into serious consideration by the Government on the earnest representations of this Department. It was felt that the existing condition of affairs could not be allowed to go on, and that, unsatisfactory as it might be for Hongkong to be saddled with the whole expense of improving these Agencies, improved they must be—or abolished.* The Estimates for this year would accordingly have embodied provision for a considerable increase of staff at Amoy, had not a proposal been made which promised an entirely new departure.
21. This was a proposal from Mr. Commissioner KOPSCH, on behalf of the Chinese Government, to take over, as a step towards the establishment of a national Post Office, the Postal work carried on by this Government at eight of the Treaty Ports of China. The report of this Department on that proposal will be found in the Appendix (C).
22. Mr. Kopsch's scheme has of course raised much discussion, especially in Shanghai, where a public meeting was convened to consider the matter. The tone both of this meeting, and of the some articles and correspondence in the newspapers, was most fair, reasonable, and moderate. Some of the objections raised possess much force, though only one has as yet been put forward which can be regarded as a real obstacle to the proposal.
23. How China may elect to develop her Postal system is not in any special way the affair of Hongkong, but a single remark on the subject may perhaps be allowable. To demand that so huge an Empire shall be covered with a network of courier services organised by the Imperial Government before that Government may attempt the much more modest task of carrying on the small coast service at present conducted by this Colony, is, as one of the speakers at Shanghai graphically put it, like insisting that a boy shall not go near the water till he has learned to swim. Any successful postal system in China must begin from the coast, and with steamer communication. It may then possibly be pushed up the rivers as steamers are admitted to them, and extended to a few of the shorter land routes, especially as railways are introduced. To make haste slowly should be the motto, and the avoidance of huge schemes like a pestilence the policy of the Chinese Post Office of the immediate future.
These remarks must not be taken as implying any reflection on the officers in charge of the Agencies in question, whose only fault was their inability to do impossibilities, or to be in two places at once.
228
1
prevents this line being a very important factor in the mail routine, but it has been possible to establish, by its means, a direct Parcel Post to most countries of the Continent of Europe. There was no parcel post to several important European countries (France for instance) whilst the others were served by a circuitous route via Gibraltar and London. Only six parcels were despatched by the German Packet which left on December 27th. It might be well for German residents in China, who are desirous of getting out any small articles from Germany, to let their friends in that country know that they can now forward parcels not exceeding three kilogrammes in weight to Hongkong or
Chines ports at a fixed postage of Fr. 4.25 per parcel.
7. The following figures as to the arrivals of the first two Germun mails in London may be of interest.
French Mail. German Mail
French Mail...
German Mail
Left Honghong .September 2.
.September 3. .September 30. ....October 1.
Arrived in London
Days
October 4
312
October
312
November 1 November 4
32 34
8. A correspondence has taken place between the Imperial Post Office, the Colonial Office, and this Government, as to the renewal of the Contract for transporting the English mails between Brindisi and Shanghai. There were only three offers, those, namely, of the P. & O. Co., of Mr. ALFRED HOLT, and of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company. One of the tenders of the first-named Company has been accepted, the mails to be carried for £265,000 a year for ten years. The report of this Department on the subject will be found in the Appendix (B).
9. Although the proposed trans-pacific line of steamers between Hongkong and British Columbia will not do much for this Colony so far as postal matters are concerned, its establishment is to be desired on many other grounds. Since the Pacific mail packets commenced running between this port and San Francisco, correspondence with Canada has increased in the most marked manner, chiefly owing no doubt to the numbers of Chinese who have settled in Victoria (B. C.) and elsewhere.
10. The dispute between the Pacific mail Company and the United States Government, which led to the discontinuance of carrying inward mails from San Francisco by the Company's vessels, has been adjusted, and the rails now arrive by every steamer from San Francisco as before. The inconvenience of having the return mails frequently despatched from here on the day fixed for the leaving of the English or French packet still continues.
11. There has been no extension of Money Order business during the year, which is not a matter of regret, as the Money Order system was really growing too fast for the limited resources of the Department to keep pace with it. It has been found absolutely necessary to have more clerical assistance in the Money Order Office, and this has been provided without very much difficulty. The want of room, however, is increasingly and severely felt, and a simple remedy is not so easy to devise. The business of the Money Order Office, like too much of the work of this Department, is carried on in a dark and crowded corner, where literally there is often not room to turn, and where every square inch is economised as if it were a ship's cabin.
12. This want of room is yearly becoming a more serious question. The Sanitary Board has pointed out that the quarters inhabited by the Chinese staff are overcrowded. They certainly are according to European ideas, even according to Chinese ideas there is not much room to spare. When foreign countries begin to claim their International right to have direct Parcel exchanges with Hongkong, it will be very difficult to see where the necessary room is to come from. A little additional space may be gained by building, and by a re-arrangement of verandahs &c., and then (unless it were possible to put on an additional storey) the limit will have been reached, and at much sacrifice of light and air. The Colony will be face to face with a demand for a new Post Office.
The present building was finished in 1865, and was evidently intended to be final. When the office is rebuilt it should be constructed, not for existing needs, but for those of twenty years later.
13. The Secretary of State has consented, in view of the representations of this Department, to allow the employment of unsalaried probationers, in the Post Office only. Postal work is distinctly work which has to be learnt, a beginner, however intelligent, is somewhat worse than useless; he gets in the way, has to be shown everything, and he makes mistakes. Hence the desirability of having an extra band always in training, so that when a vacancy does occur it has not to be filled by a raw recruit. 14. It may perhaps be permissible to point out how, in this Office, unlike most other Post Offices, everything has to be filtered through two languages, one of which at least is but very imperfectly understood by many of the clerks who use it. At home a postman reads the address on a letter and delivers it accordingly. Here he depends on one or two hastily written Chinese characters, and if there happens to be a similarity in sound between the name as dictated, or as written, and some other name (ooper and Cooper, Tai-hù and Tai-kùn for instance) the chances of a mistake are very great.*
M.....
*A letter was handed to a Chinese postman who was told to take it to Mr. X. one that did not lend itself to Chinese pronunciation, the aubriquet of long-bearded X. had been invented to prevent errors. The same difficulty "Do you inean long-bearded X ?" he asked. The name being applies to names of streets, &c. Richmond Termice is erlied the New six houses, West Terrace the Old six houses, the Albany is Figure 1 Bow Checause of its shape). Pedrier's Hill is the Two Flagstafës (though there are no fingstaffs there now), the Wellington Barracks are called after a Chinese character (1) which their ground plan is supposed to resemble.
15. A Committee consisting of the Acting Harbour Master, the Director of the Observatory, and the Postmaster General was appointed to examine into the question of signalling the English mails from Kowloon Point. It was found impossible to devise any efficient and inexpensive signal which would not clash with the weather signals made at that station. It was therefore recommended that the use of the Kowloon Point gun for mail signals should be discontinued. Fortunately no inconvenience has arisen from the arrival of an unsignalled mail, a circumstance which may be due to an unusual freedom from fog during the year. It is to be hoped that some day all difficulties of this kind will be obviated telegraphic communication with the projected Gap Rock lighthouse, which would give the community here four hours notice of the approach of the mail.
16. In the meantime a direct telephone line between this Office and the Peak signal station is much to be desired. What with clouds, night-fall, flags blowing straight on end, and other circumstances, the Post Office too often obtains the minimum rather than the maximum of information from the Peak.
17. There have been two casualties during the year. The steamer Douglas was lost on February 10th with coast mails on board, which were not recovered. Communication between the Coast Ports and Hongkong having been interrupted for several days by the Chinese New Year holidays. the mails were unfortunately exceptionally heavy. The Madras was lost with a mail for this Office from Nagasaki. Most of the correspondence was subsequently recovered by H. M. S. Midge, and forwarded to destination.
18. The service to Japan has gone on fairly well, the mails having been forwarded without many excessive delays. The English mail of January 22nd was sent on to Kobe in the City of Rio (viâ Yokohama). It would have been better to keep it here a couple of days longer for the Zambesi, but at the time of its despatch it was not known when that vessel would start. The English mail of September 3 was sent to Yokohama in the Claymore, whereus it should have been kept for the Stettin. The German service was a little new at the time, the Stettin was not notified, and it escaped notice that there would be a German Packet leaving within a day or two. As far as is known these were the only occasions on which this Office failed to secure the earliest opportunity for a mail for Japan except one instance (the French mail for Yokohama of October 22nd) in which it was so doubtful which steainer would arrive first that this office would not take the responsibility of diverting the mail from its ordi- nary route via Kobe. Against these may be set the fact that, on July 13th, the Agent of the Pacific Mail Co. courteously detained the San Pablo for the arrival of the English mail, thus saving the Yokohama community a delay of probably at least two days.
19. The abolition of accounts with the London Office, referred to in the last Annual Report as under consideration, has been carried out, and our relations with the United Kingdom are now simply those of the Postal Union, with a special payment of £6,000 a year in addition. The saving of labour, copying, &c. is very considerable.
20. The state of several of our Postal Agencies, specially those of Amoy and Foochow, was taken into serious consideration by the Government on the earnest representations of this Department. It was felt that the existing condition of affairs could not be allowed to go on, and that, unsatisfactory as it might be for Hongkong to be saddled with the whole expense of improving these Agencies, improved they must be--or abolished. * The Estimates for this year would accordingly have embodied provision for a considerable increase of staff at Amoy, had not a proposal been made which promised an entirely new departure.
21. This was a proposal from Mr. Commissioner KOPSCH, on behalf of the Chinese Government, to take over, as a step towards the establishment of a national Post Office, the Postal work carried on by this Government at eight of the Treaty Ports of China. The report of this Department on that proposal will be found in the Appendix ( Č).
22. Mr. Korson's scheme has of course raised much discussion, especially in Shanghai, where a public meeting was convened to consider the matter. The tone both of this meeting, and of the Some articles and correspondence in the newspapers, was most fair, reasonable, and moderate. of the objections raised possess much force, though only one has as yet been put forward which can be regarded as a real obstacle to the proposal.
23. How China may elect to develop her Postal system is not in any special way the affair of Hongkong, but a single remark on the subject may perhaps be allowable. To demand that so huge an Empire shall be covered with a network of courier services organised by the Imperial Government before that Government may attempt the much more modest task of carrying on the small coast service at present conducted by this Colony, is, as one of the speakers at Shanghai graphically put it, like insisting that a boy shall not go near the water till he has learned to swim. Any successful postal system in China must begin from the coast, and with steamer communication. It may then possibly be pushed up the rivers as steamers are admitted to them, and extended to a few of the shorter land routes, especially as railways are introduced. To make haste slowly should be the motto, and the avoidance of huge schemes like a pestilence the policy of the Chinese Post Office of the immediate future.
These remarks must not be taken as implying any reflection on the officers in charge of the Agencies in question, whose only fault was their inability to do impossibilities, or to be in two places at once.
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