Directory_and_Chronicle_1880 — Page 504

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HONGKONG POSTAL GUIDE.

489

117.-Postage Stamps are sold for cash only. Correspondence will not be stamped at the Post Office and charged to a boxholder's account, except as provided by the local Postage Regula- tions (see paragraph 159c).

118. The shroffs who sell stamps are not allowed to affix them, even if requested to do so. This must be done by the purchaser.

119. Specimen Stamps cannot be supplied to the public except on receipt of their full value, which is as follows:-

Complete set of ordinary Stamps, including obsolete values...... Complete do. high value....

$ 3 38 or 14/1.

15.00 ,, 62/6.

$18.38 or 76/7.

120. The officers of the Post Office cannot undertake to collect obliterated Postage Stamps. 121. All persons are recommended to keep Postage Stamps under lock and key, and in posting large quantities of correspondence to send it in a box carefully sealed (see paragraphs 45 and 46). The best way to deal with Postage Stamps that have got stuck together is to steam them for a few minutes, separate them gently, and dry them on blotting paper in the sun. Then add a little fresh gum.

Money Orders.

122.-Money Orders are exchanged with the United Kingdom, New South Wales, New Zealand, Queensland, South Australia and Port Darwin, the Straits Settlements, Western Australia, and (except at Shanghai) with the Japanese Empire. Hongkong also issues orders on Shanghai,

and vice versa.

123.-Small sums may be remitted between the other ports by means of Postage Stamps, subject to a charge of one per cent. for cashing them. (See paragraphs 112-115).

124. Many money orders are supplied to residents at the smaller ports in this way. An application for an order is filled up, and is enclosed with a stamped, directed, and unsealed envelope to the Postmaster at the nearest issuing office. The application must be accompanied with the full amount (including commission) in cheque, postage stamps, or other equivalent of cash, and a little margin should be left for variations of exchange. The Postmaster issues the order, sends it on in the envelope, and returns the change, if any, by first opportunity, with a receipt for the letter if it were to be registered, as it always should be. Care should be taken to send these applications in time, as the money order offices close some hours before the departure of the mail.

125. No order must exceed £10 or $50, or include any fraction of a penny. Two £10 or $50 orders is the limit of any one remittance. Orders will be drawn at the current rate of the day +, and paid at the rate of the day when the advice arrived.

Orders on United Kingdom.

Up to £2......18 cents.

Up to £ 5......36 cents.

Up to £7......54 cents.

Up to £10... .72 cents.

The commission is as follows:- Local and Intercolonial Orders. Up to $25 or £ 5..... 25 cents. Up to $50 or £10......50 cents.

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

127.-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.

128.-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.

129.-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.

130.—No order can be paid until the advice relative to it has been received.

Miscellaneous Suggestions and Regulations.

131.-It is most desirable that every letter, 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 destroyed if it cannot be delivered.

132.-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.

133.-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

* Made out on a printed form which is supplied gratis.

+ In the case of local orders on Shanghai this is generally taken to be 2 per cent. premium.

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