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HONGKONG POSTAL GUIDE.
110.-A shipmaster is bound to take mails and sign a receipt for them.
111.-The master of a ship is beyond doubt the person responsible for the due delivery of mails. Every ship should be fitted with a locker or chest for mails, and nothing else should be put in it. As soon as a mail comes on board, whoever receives it should place it in the mail locker, and before arrival at any port this locker should be examined.
Communication with Batavia.
112-The Netherlands India Packets leave Singapore fortnightly, and are fitted to the arrival of the outward P. & O. Mail from Europe. The French Packets for Batavia wait at Sin- gapore for the Packets from China and run fortnightly.
Communication with India.
113.-Correspondence for India is despatched by each British and each French Packet, as also by the direct steamers for Calcutta which leave about the 16th of each month. The route is chosen in each case so as to ensure the quickest possible delivery. Paid correspondence for Bagdad, Bassora, Bunder Abas, Bushire, Cabul, Gwadur, Kashmir, Ladak, Linga, Mandalay, Muscat, and Persia may be forwarded via India at Union Kates.
Communication with Australia.
114.-There are three routes to Australia, viz., via Torres Straits, via Batavia and Port Darwin, and via Galle.
115.-The Torres Straits route is the best for Eastern Australia as far as Melbourne, for New Zealand, Tasmania, and Fiji. Correspondence for Adelaide and Perth may be sent by this route. The packets leave Singapore every four weeks, their departures being regulated by the arrival of the outward P. & O. Mail. There are also opportunities by private steamer by this route.
116. The route via Batavia and Port Darwin affords means of communication with Port Darwin, but for other ports of Australia this route compares very unfavourably with the other two in respect of speed. The packets leave Batavia five times a year.
117. The route via Galle'is best for Western and Southern Australia, and is perhaps as advantageous as the Torres Straits route for Melbourne. Each alternate homeward French Packet connects at Galle with the P. & O. steamer which leaves that port for King George's Sound, Adelaide, and Melbourne. There is obviously no advantage in forwarding correspondence to Galle by intermediate steamers.
Communication with Mauritius, E. &. 8. Africa, &c.
118.-The homeward French packets which are advertised to carry the Australian mail to Galle are also the best opportunities of forwarding correspondence to Aden for the Mauritius packet, and for Mozambique, Zanzibar, Natal, the Cape, St. Helena, and Ascension. As these packets leave Aden only once in every four weeks, there is little advantage in forwarding the correspondence by intermediate steamers.
The San Francisco Route, Canada, &c.
119.-The route by San Francisco can be freely used for ordinary or registered correspondence for Union or Non-union countries,† the rates of postage to the former being 12 cente, &c. No mails for London or the Continent of Europe are closed by this route in Hongkong, as no prac- tical advantages result from its use. The making up of mails via San Francisco at Shanghai is left to the U. S. and Japanese Post Offices.
West Indies.
120-The following West India Islands are included in the Postal Union :--
Buen Ayre.
Cuba.
Curaçoa.
Desirade.
Guadeloupe.
Isle of Pines.
Jamaica. Les Saintes. Marie Galante. Martinique,
Oruba. Porto Rico. Saba.
St. Croix.
St. Eustatius.
St. John. St. Martin. St. Thomas. Trinidad.
To all other West India Islands Non-Union Rates must be paid (see Table). The rates to the Bahamas and Hayti via San Francisco are lower than to the other Islands.
The registration fee to the Union Islands named above is 8 cents, to all other British‡ West Indies, and Honduras it is 12 cents. The only Islands to which there is no registration are St. Bartholomew, Margarita, Tortuga, Los Siete Hermanos, and Hayti.
The Mediterranean.
121.-An impression appears to prevail that correspondence for the Mediterranean stations, Gibraltar, Malta, Cyprus, the Levant, Turkey, &c., can be forwarded only by British Packet. It can be forwarded also by French Packet, and if so forwarded generally arrives a week earlier than if it had been detained for the British Mail.
* All correspondence for the above places is sent by this route unless specially otherwise directed. ✦ Correspondence for the West Indies (except those belonging to the Postal Union, the Bahamas, and Hayti), for
Monte Video, Paraguay, and Uruguay cannot be sent vid San Francisco.
‡ Viz. :-Caymans, Bahamas, Virgin Is., Tobago, Grenada, &c., Grenadines, St. Vincent, Barbadoes, St Lucia, Dominica, Antigua, Montserrat, Barbuda, Nevis, and Redonda, St. Christopher's, Anguilla,
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