Directory_and_Chronicle_1895 — Page 29

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HONGKONG POSTAL GUIDE

PRIVATE BOXES.

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

48.--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 emptied, or at any rate not later than next morning. The only safe way to empty a bag is to turn it inside out.

49.-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.

50.-The advantages of renting a box are many. It secures a quicker and more accurate delivery of correspondence. Unpaid letters are delivered to boxholders with- out the delay of demanding payment, change, &c., as they are charged to his account. The boxholders of Hongkong and Shanghai send bags down in the mail steamer to be filled by the marine officer. Boxholders 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 boxholder being allowed to make a practice of sending short- paid correspondence or letters to be stamped. Boxholders are also allowed certain privileges as to posting local correspondence unstamped (see paragraph 11).

51.-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 correspondence 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 corre- spondence received. Entries On Board are for unpaid correspondence dealt with by the marine officer on his way up from Singapore.

POST RESTANTE,

52.—All articles superscribed "To be kept till called for," "To await arrival," or in any similar way, and also articles addressed "Post Office," are held to fall under the head "Poste Restante."

53.-Poste Restante letters, &c., can be obtained at any time during the office hours. The persons applying for them must furnish satisfactory evidence that they are parties to whom the correspondence should be delivered.

54.-Poste Restante correspondence is kept for the following periods, after which it is regarded as "Dead," and is returned to the office of origin :-

19

"

"

**

4

19

Local letters are kept for 1 month......... Letters for steamers are kept for 3 months International

2 months

sailing vessels 55.-The Poste Restante is intended for the accommodation of strangers and travellers who have no permanent abode in Hongkong.

56.-When correspondence is received addressed to parties in "Hongkong," but without a full address, it is placed in the Poste Restante if no request has been received from the addressee regarding it, or his name does not appear in the Directory.

LETTERS.-Dimensions.

57.-There is no limit to the weight of letters, but, unless to or from a Government Office, they must not exceed 2 feet in length and 1 foot in width and depth.

Address to be complete.

58.-Addresses should be as complete as possible in order to facilitate delivery, and in order that, in the event of the letter becoming from any cause undeliverable, it may be returned to the writer unopened, it is recommended that the sender's name and address be also superscribed on the cover.

Unpaid Letters; Loose Letters.

59. The general rule as to insufficiently paid letters is to double the deficient postage. If the despatching office has not indicated how much the deficiency is, it is taken to be 10 cents per half ounce, and the letter is consequently charged 20 cents per half ounce. Any foreign postage stamps affixed are neglected in making this charge.

• The boxes should be closed with some recognizable seal. Locked boxes cannot be allowed. 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 Boz. No attention is promised to anything written in the book-To be Registered, for instance.