Directory_and_Chronicle_1897 — Page 29

xxviii

HONGKONG POSTAL GUIDE

of the nature of a letter or not, may be written or printed, or partly written and partly printed on the other side. But no card will be forwarded on which anything libellous, insulting, or indecent has been written, printed, or drawn.

95.-Nothing must be attached to a Post Card, nor may it be folded, cut, or otherwise altered. If so, it will be charged as a letter. Thin paper, smaller than the card, may, however, be pasted smoothly on it.

96. In regard to hours for posting, late fees, &c., Post Cards are submitted to the same rules as letters.

97.-A card of insufficient value may be fully prepaid by the addition of an adhesive stamp of proper amount.

REGISTRATION.

98.-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 10 cents to the United Kingdom and elsewhere, local 5 cents. The sender of any registered article may obtain an acknowledgment of its delivery to the addressee on paying an extra fee of 5 cents.

99.-Letters to be registered should be handed to the receiving officer at the proper win- dow, and a receipt obtained. The hour of registry will be marked on the receipt if specially requested. Whoever presents an article for registry MUST ASK (orally) FOR A RECEIPT. Nothing written on the letter or elsewhere can replace this indispensable precaution.

100.-The Post Office is not legally responsible for the safe delivery of registered correspondence, but will be prepared to make good the value of such correspondence if lost while passing through the Post, to the extent of $10, in certain cases, provided :---

(a) That the sender duly observed all the conditions of registration. (That the correspondence was securely enclosed in a reasonably strong envelope. (c) That application was made to the Postmaster-General of Hongkong immediately the loss was discovered, and within a year at the most from the date of posting such correspondence. (d) That the Postmaster-General is satisfied the loss occurred whilst the correspondence was in the custody of the British Postal administration in China; that it was not caused by any fault on the part of the sender; by destruction by fire, or shipwreck; nor by the dishonesty or negligence of any person not in the employment of the Hongkong Post Office.

101.-No compensation can be paid for mere damage to fragile articles such as portraits, watches, handsomely bound books, &c., which reach their destination, although în a broken or deteriorated condition, nor on account of alleged losses of the contents of registered covers which safely reached their destinations, nor on account of any article for which the addressee has signed a receipt.

102.-The Post Office declines all responsibility for unregistered letters containing bank notes, or jewellery, and where registration has been neglected will make no enquiries into alleged losses of such letters.

103.-A postcard enclosed in a packet of correspondence, for return to the sender by way of receipt, will not under any circumstances be admitted as evidence that any particular article reached the Post Office.

104. Registration in China extends to Hoihow, Canton, Swatow, Amoy, Foochow Ningpo, Shanghai, and Hankow only.

MISCELLANEOUS.

105.-Contrary to general usage the Hongkong Post Office will give a receipt of the kind given for a boxholder's box for an ordinary letter, to assure the sender his corre- spondence 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.

106.-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.

107.-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.