Directory_and_Chronicle_1882 — Page 983

410

Day before departure-

HONGKONG POSTAL GUIDE.

FRENCH MAIL.

5 P.M.-Money Order Office closes. Post Office closes, except the nightbox, which is

always open out of office hours.

Day of Departure—

7 A.M.-Post Office opens.

10 A.M.

-Registry of Letters ceases. Posting of all printed matter and patterns ceases. 11 A.M.-Mails closed, except for Late Letters.

11,10 A.M. -Letters may be posted with late fee of 10 cents until

11.30 A.M.

when the Post Office closes entirely.

11.40 A.M.-Lato Letters may be posted on board the packet with late fee of 10 cents until time of departure. If insufficiently paid, or without Late Foe, they will not be forwarded, but will be returned from Saigon.

153.-Supplementary mails are also closed on board the American packets (for Union countries only). The Late Fee is 10 cents. There are moveable boxes on board the British and French Packets for Shanghai and Yokohama* which may be used without late fee. The Post Office undertakes no responsibility as to correspondence so posted.

154.-All other mails are closed half an hour before the time of sailing, except the Contract Mails for Shanghai, which close an hour before, half an hour being allowed for the reception of correspondence with late fee of 19 cents. A daily list of Mails is circulated.

155.-Correspondence can be registered for the American, Indian, Torres Straits, Shanghai, or Yokohama Contract Mails up to a quarter of an hour before the time of closing; for all private ship mails up to five minutes before.

156. Whilst making up the Contract Mails for the British, French, American and Torres Straits Packets, it is necessary to keep the office wholly closed for at least ten minutes. Whilst sorting the outward Contract Mails the Post Office is closed to the Public except for the sale of Stamps. Enquiries, &c. cannot be attended to, nor can correspondence be registered.

157.—As to matters in which the public can render the department most valuable co-opera- tion, see paragraph 139.

158.—On mail days two windows are set apart for the sale of Stamps. Large quantities of newspapers, &c., should be brought to the boxholders' window, not dropped through the Letter Slits. Registry is effected in the Money Order office.

159.—The charge for delivery of a letter, newspaper, book, or pattern within Victoria is 2 cents. No delivery is guaranteed to ships lying in the harbour. Local delivery is governed by the following general rules:-

(a.)-All correspondence posted before 5 P.M. on any week day for addresses in Victoria will be delivered the same day, and generally within two hours, unless the delivery should be retarded by the contract mails. Information can always be obtained as to when a delivery will take place.

(b.)—Where an establishment is wholly closed on Sunday or at night, a letter box for the

delivery of correspondence should be provided, and should be regularly cleared. (c.)-Invitations, &c., can generally be delivered within Victoria at the private houses of the addressees rather than at places of business, if a wish to that effect be expressed by the sender, otherwise all correspondence is invariably delivered at the nearest place of business. No local delivery is attempted outside Victoria, nor within Victoria at houses where ferocious dogs are kept loose. (d.)-Boxholders who desire to send Circulars, Dividend Warrants, Invitations, Cards, &c., all of the some weight, to addresses in Hongkong, Bangkok, or the Ports of China, may deliver them to the Post Office unstamped, the postage being then charged to the sender's account. Each batch must consist of at least ten. Such local letters may exceed 1 oz. in weight, and are charged 2 cents per ounce. Special accounts can be opened (even with non-boxholders) for the delivery of considerable numbers of unstamped local letters (such as Invitations, &c.) all of the same weight. (c.)—Boxholders may also send Patterns to the same places in the same way. Envelopes containing Patterns may be wholly closed if the nature of the contents be first ex- hibited or stated to the Postmaster General, as he may consider necessary, and approved by him. Printed Circulars may be inserted in such Pattern Packets. 160. As to excepting the correspondence of individuals from the general delivery, soe para- graph 147. Letters for persons whose addresses are known will not be kept Poste Restante except by special permission of the Postmaster General and for satisfactory reasons.

161-Registered letters cannot be delivered with the same promptitude as ordinary corres. pondence, though in the case of the British mail the delay is made as short as possible by means

* There is generally a Post Office Agent on board the French packet for Yokohama, who makes up a “upplementary Mail. It should be remembered that he does not go on board till denrly the last moment, and if he is not found there, sonders of correspondence should await his arrival.

+ This applies also to letters directed to Kowloon, the Peak, Aberdeen, &0