Directory_and_Chronicle_1888 — Page 1162

$94

HONGKONG POSTAL GUIDE.

British Post Office in China (except Hoihow) at the following prices, which include com mission :-

1/- 1/6

5/—

10/- 20/-

33 cents.

50

$1.65.

$3.30.

$6.60.

All money orders on the United Kingdom for even sums not exceeding £5 applied for at Hong- kong or Shanghai will be issued by means of these Notes.

89.-The purchaser of any Postal Note must fill in the Payee's name before parting with it. He may also fill in the name of the Office where payment is to be made. If this is not done the note is payable (within three months) anywhere in the United Kingdom, or at Constantinople. Any Postal Note may be crossed to a Bank.

90.-Postal Notes should always be forwarded in Registered Covers. If this precaution is not taken No ENQUIRIES WHATEVER will be made as to the loss or alleged loss of any Note.

91.-Postal Notes issued in the United Kingdom are not payable in Hongkong or China.

Private Boxes.

92.-Private Boxes may be rented in the offices at Hongkong and Shanghai. The fee is $10 a year payable in advance.

93.-Each boxholder is supplied with an account book free, but must himself provide at least two stout bags (Shanghai firms require four) marked with his name in English and Chinese on both sides. Chinese Nankin makes the best bags for this purpose. They should be without strings, but have a couple of iron rings at the mouth for suspending. Boxholders should insist on their coolies returning these bags to the Post Office as soon as emplied, or at any rate not later than next morning. The only safe way to empty a bag is to turn it inside out.

94.-Each boxholder's coolie must be provided with a stout ticket or badge of wood, metal or pasteboard, bearing his employer's name in English and Chinese. This will enable him to obtain letters whenever a mail arrives.

95.-The advantages of renting a box are many. It secures a quicker and more accurate delivery of correspondence. Unpaid letters are delivered to boxholders without the delay of demanding payment, change, &c., as they are charged to his account. The boxholders of Hong- kong and Shanghai send bags down in the mail steamer to be filled by the marine officer. Box- holders are allowed to post their letters in sealed boxes, and to mark their Postage Stamps. They receive free copies of all notices issued by the Post Office, Tables of Rates, &c. Many inconveniences are saved to them by the facility for charging their accounts with small deficiencies of postage, when there is no time to return a short-paid letter. This, however, is only done as an exception, when the letter cannot go on unpaid, no borholder being allowed to make a practice of sending short-puid correspondence, or letters to be stamped. Boxholders are also allowed certain privileges as to posting local correspondence unstamped (see paragraph 100).

96.-Boxholders' books are sent out for settlement on the first day of each month, and should be returned promptly. As a general rule no information can be given as to the corres- pondence charged in these accounts, where it came from, &c. There is only one way to obtain such information, and that is to file the covers of all unpaid correspondence received. Entries On Board are for unpaid correspondence dealt with by the Marine Officer on his way up from Singapore.

Local Delivery.

97.-Local delivery is governed by the following general rules:-

98.-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.

99.—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 no delivery is attempted at any private house (even though named in the address) when there is a place of business nearer at which delivery can be effected, nor at the Peak, Kowloon, Aberdeen, &c., nor on board ship.

100.-Boxholders who desire to send Circulars, Dividend Warrants, Invitations, Cards, &c., all of the same weight, to addresses in Hongkong, 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 i 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.

101.-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 exhibited or stated to the Postmaster General, as he may consider necessary, and approved by him. Printed Circulars may be inserted in such Pattern Packets.