Directory_and_Chronicle_1879 — Page 889

HONGKONG POSTAL GUIDE.

399

76.-No order must exceed £10, or include any fraction of a penny. Orders will be drawn at the current rate of the day *, and paid at the rate of the day when the advice arrived. The commission is as follows:-

Orders on United Kingdom.

Up to £ 2......18 cents.

Up to £ 5... .36 cents.

Up to £ 7......54 cents. Up to £10......72 cents.

Local Money Orders. Up to $25..... 15 cents.

Up to $50......30 cents.

77.-Lists of money order offices in the United Kingdom may be consulted at Hongkong and Shanghai.

78.-Names must be given in full (except when there is more than one Christian name), but the name of the payee need not be given if the order be crossed (as cheques are crossed). It can then be paid only through a bank, and may afterwards be specially crossed to any bank.

79.—No order can be paid till the payee has signed it in the proper place. An order can be transferred to another office on payment of an additional commission. In case of loss of an order, necessity for stopping payment, or the like, application should be made to the nearest money order office for instructions.

80.-If the order be not presented within six months an additional commission will be charged; if not within twelve months, the money will be forfeited. When the order is once paid no further claim can be entertained.

81.-No order can be paid until the advice relative to it has been received.

Miscellaneous Suggestions and Regulations.

82.-It is most desirable that every letter, or book, or pattern packet should bear the sender's name and address, as well outside as inside. If every letter were marked outside with the name and address of the sender, no letter need ever be opened under any circumstances. To sign letters merely James, or Harriet, or the like, is a practice which leads to the letter being destroy- ed if it cannot be delivered.

83.-Letters addressed to clubs, hotels, mercantile houses, &c., to be called for, should be returned to the Post Office as soon as it becomes evident they will not be called for. No refund of postage will be made after three months.

84.-Unclaimed letters are advertised for three months (or four if for sailing ships) after which, if still unclaimed, they are returned to the country where they originated. Dead Letters (i.e. those returned from other countries to Hongkong) are returned at once to the writers, if the writers' addresses be discoverable on the outsides. If not, they are advertised for 10 days, then opened if still unclaimed, and returned to the writers if they can be found. If not they are destroyed.

85.-Those who provide printed envelopes for their local correspondence would do well to add the addresses in Chinese.

86.—The word London alone is not a sufficient address for a letter, however well known may be the person or firm to whom it is directed. Number and street should be added, together with the proper distinguishing letters, E.C.; W.; S.E.; &c., as the case may be. Similarly, residents in China or Japan should have their correspondence directed fully. Å letter directed W. Jones, Esq., Hongkong, would not improbably be put aside by the marine sorter for enquiry in the Hongkong office, and thus be delayed. But if it were directed W. Jones, Esq., Messrs. B. C. & Co., Hongkong, no difficulty could arise.

87.-Letters addressed London, To be called for, are not received at any offices but S. Martin's- le-Grand and Charing Cross, nor are they receiv nere if directed to initials or fictitious names, or to any person except a stranger or traveller. No one is allowed habitually to receive letters through the Poste Restante in London.

88.-The Post Office is not responsible for less of, or injury to correspondence, even if regis-

tered.

89.-No Postmaster or Agent is allowed to return a letter to the writer, or to keep it back at the writer's request, without the written authority of His Excellency the Governor of Hongkong, or of Her Majesty's Consul at the port, on an application stating fully the reasons of the request, nor is he allowed to give any information as to correspondence passing through his hands.

90.-Sealing wax ought never to be used on the outside of the correspondence unless covered with tissue paper.

91.-As a general rule, only clean Mexican dollars, or other current tender, can be taken at the Post Offices and Agencies, nor can change be supplied. At the Hongkong office, sovereigns are taken on request and change is generally to be had, but copper cash are not taken, nor are servants allowed to pay sums of ten cents or more in copper without a note from their employers. No postal officer is bound to give change, or to weigh correspondence, but he ought not to refuse to do the latter unless pressed for time.

92.-Every shipmaster who delivers correspondence at a British Post Office in China is entitled to receive two cents for every letter, and one cent for every other article of corres-

* Local orders on Shanghai are drawn at 3 per cent. premium in all cases. A fired dollar rate for drawing on the United Kingdom is in force at Shanghai,