Directory_and_Chronicle_1899 — Page 40

xxxviii

HONGKONG POSTAL GUIDE

102.-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.

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

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

REGISTRATION.

105.--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 10 cents.

106.--Letters are accepted for registration at the Praya West and Kowloon branch offices, as well as at the General Post Office.

107.-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.

108.—All registered letters or packets on being redirected must be taken back to the Registration Department to be dealt with as registered, and must not be dropped into a letter-box as ordinary letters or packets. If brought later than the day (Sundays and public holidays not being counted) after delivery, a fresh registration fee as well as fresh postage will be required.

109.-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.

(b) 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. (4) 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.

110.-No compensation can be paid for mere damage to fragile articles such as portraits, watches, handsomely bound books, &c., which reach their destination, although in 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.

111.-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.

112.-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.

113.--Enquiry as to the disposal of a registered article will be made free of charge when the sender produces prima facie evidence that it has failed to reach the addressee. When, however, no such evidence is produced, a fee of 10 cents. for an acknowledgment of delivery will be required before enquiry is instituted. No fee will be charged for enquiry when the sender has already paid for an acknowledgment of delivery.

114.-Officers employed in the Registration Department are forbidden to address registered mail matter, to enclose it in the envelope, seal it, or affix the stamps.

MISCELLANEOUS.

115.-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- ondence has not been stolen on the way to the Post. But this receipt is not intended used against the Post Office in case the correspondence goes astray. Some few Offices should acknowledgments of posting on payment of a halfpenny or so for each letter gives a red edged, and even then they decline to admit that any such acknowledgment refers *icular letter. Others have abandoned the practice of given receipts even on