Directory_and_Chronicle_1892 — Page 35

HONGKONG POSTAL GUIDE

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10.-Correspondence from the Coast marked vid Brindisi or via Marseilles is KEPT DE THE ROUTE INDICATED even though that may involve a fortnight's detention. Unless his is intended therefore, the safest direction is By first mail.

11.-Letters from the Coast forwarded without prepayment are not delivered until the Hongkong Office has time to deal with them; paid covers are delivered at once. Unpaid papers are returned to the senders.

12.-It is not necessary to pay postage on covers from the Coast containing stamped correspondence for the homeward mails or local delivery.

13-It is sometimes possible to overtake the French packet at Singapore by means of a direct private steamer. When this can be done Coast correspondence which arrived

too late is so sent on.

14.-Mails may also be forwarded to London and Ports of call by the Tea steamers leaving China, either direct, or to catch the next contract mail at Singapore or Suez. Except by special request, only letters are sent in these mails.

15.-Newspapers for China posted in the United Kingdom and paid only 1d. each instead of 1d., which is the proper postage, or over 4 ounces in weight and paid one rate only, are sent out by private steamers instead of by the contract mails.

Australia.

16.-There are two routes to Australia, viz., viâ Torres Straits, and viâ Colombo. The Torres Straits route is the best for Eastern Australia as far as Sydney, for New Zealand, Tasmania and Fiji. All correspondence for these places is thus sent unless otherwise directed. Correspondence for Adelaide and Perth may be sent by this route.

17—The route viâ Colombo is best for Western and Southern Australia. Each home- ward French Packet connects at Colombo with the P. & O. steamer which leaves that port for King George's Sound, Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney.

Canada, the San Francisco Route, &c.

18.-The routes by Vancouver or San Francisco can be freely used for ordinary or registered correspondence for Union or Non-union countries. The making up of mails ria San Francisco at Shanghai is left to the United States and Japanese Post Offices.

19-When it is desired to forward letters to the United States by a sailing ship not notifie l as carrying a mail, all that is necessary is to post the letters in the ordinary way, inked with the name of the ship, and prepaid 10 cents per half ounce as usual The Post Office then undertakes the duty of obtaining notice of departure and despatch- ing the correspondence.

Posting.

20.-Boxholders are allowed to post their correspondence in sealed boxes, which should be closed with some recognisable seal. Locked boxes cannot be allowed.

21.-A receipt book should be sent with each box, but as the receiving officer cannot undertake to count the correspondence sent, he only gives a receipt for One Box.

22.-No attention is promised to anything written in the book, To be Registered, for instance.

23.-Contrary to general usage the Hongkong Post Office will give a receipt of this kind for an ordinary letter, to assure the sender his correspondence has not been stolen on the way to the Post. But this receipt is not intended to be used against the Post Office in case the correspondence goes astray. Some few Offices grant acknowledgments of posting on payment of a halfpenny or so for each letter acknowledged, and even then they decline to admit that any such acknowledgment refers to any particular letter. Others have abandoned the practice of giving receipts even on payment. It is obvious therefore that this Office cannot allow its free receipts to be used to found complaints on. If that is intended the correspondence should be Registered.

24.-It is no part of the duties of the Post Office to affix stamps to correspondence, or to see that servants purchase or affix the proper amounts, nor can the officers of the Department, under any circumstances, undertake to do this.

25.-Any article of correspondence duly prepaid and posted becomes the property of the addressee, and cannot be returned to the sender, nor can it be detained, without the written authority of the Governor of Hongkong or of Her Majesty's Consul at the Port, on an application stating fully the reasons for the request.

Registration.

26.-Every description of paid correspondence may be registered, except such as is addressed in pencil, or is addressed to initials or fictitious names, or is not properly fastened and secured. The fee is 7 cents to the United Kingdom, Local 5 cents, elsewhere 10 cents. The sender of any Registered article may have a receipt sent with it for signature by the addressee and return on paying an extra fee of 5 cents.