693199-1876-Bills-read-first-time-Deportation-and-Conditional-Pardon-Consolidation-Gambling-Amendment-Piracy-Post-Office- — Page 7

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THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 18TH NOVEMBER, 1876.

Appointment of officers in

future. [Ibid, secs. & 5.]

Declarations.

V. The Governor may hereafter, as occasion requires, ap point, from time to time, a Postmaster General of the Colony, and all necessary Assistant Postmasters General, Postmasters, agents, 2

clerks, or servants for conducting the business of the Post Office. VI. No person hereafter appointed shall be capable of hold- Ibid, sec. 5.] ing the office of Postmaster General, or Assistant Postmaster Ge- neral, or Postmaster, or Agent, unless he shall have first made and subscribed before a Justice of the Peace, or one of Her Brit- tanic Majesty's Consuls, the declaration contained in the schedule A hereto annexed, and no person hereafter appointed shall be capable of being a clerk, servant, or officer of the Post Office, unless he shall have first made and subscribed in like manner, the declaration contained in the schedule B hereto annexed.

Postmaster

authorised to

VII. The Postmaster General shall, by himself or his depu- General solely ties, have the entire charge of the General Post Office and of all receive and de- postal matters within the Colony, with sole power, within the liver all cor- Colony, of receiving from all persons authorised to deliver the same, respondence. all letter bags and correspondence arriving in the Colony; and [Ibid, sec. 3.] with sole power, within the Colony, of collecting, receiving, and delivering to all persons authorised to receive the same, all corres- pondence for transmission by or through the General Post Office to places out of the Colony.

Letters ex-

The said Postmaster General shall also have the exclusive pri- vilege, within the Colony, of performing all the incidental services of receiving, collecting, despatching and delivering all correspond- ence arriving from, or transmitted to any place out of the Colony; and no letters (except Chinese letters), unless exempt by law, shall be delivered in, or transmitted from the Colony, otherwise than by or through the General Post Office.

VIII. All correspondence which, by any Act of the Imperial cepted under Parliament, is excepted from the exclusive privilege of the Impe- Acts of Imperial Post Office, shall within this Colony be, and the same is here- by declared to be, excepted from the exclusive privilege of the [Ibid, sec. 4, Postmaster General of the Colony.

rial Parlia

ment.

& See 1 Vic.

c. 33, sec. 2.]

Receipt of postage and accounts.

of

IX. The Postmaster General shall receive all postage pay- able in the Colony and shall keep accounts of all correspondence [See Ord. 8 received and despatched by him, with the particulars of the Postage 1862, sec. 7.] thereof, in such manner and form as the Governor may, from time to time, direct; but so that the accounts of monies payable to the Imperial Postmaster General be kept distinct from the accounts of monies payable to the Colonial Treasury.

The Postmaster General shall keep the accounts of monies pay- able to the Imperial Postmaster General in such form and shall transmit such monies in such manner, as the said Imperial Post- master General may, from time to time, direct.

Governor in X. The Governor in Council may, from time to time, by Council may order under his hand determine the rates of postage to be charged. fix rates of

upon all correspondence sent by post from the General Post Office postage. [Ibid, secs. 24 of the Colony, or received therein from places outside the Colony, & 13, and 34 & and the scale of weights according to which such rates are to be 35 Vic. c. 30 charged, and may revoke, alter, or add to any such order, so how- sec. 1.]

ever, that no order be inconsistent with any instructions on the subject transmitted from the Secretary of State or the Imperial Postmaster General.

Orders to be

published by Proclamation. [Ibid.]

The Governor may make regulations. [Ibid.]

Decision as to newspapers, packets, &c.

Paid corres-

XI. The Governor shall publish every such order by Pro- clamation in the Gazette; and every order, when so published, shall have the same effect as if it had been inserted in this Ordinance.

XII. The Governor may, subject to such instructions as aforesaid, from time to time, make, alter, and repeal, in relation to correspondence sent by post, such regulations as he thinks fit for regulating the times and modes of posting and delivery, prepay- ment, late fees, fines on unpaid correspondence, the registry of correspondence, money orders, the sale and affixing of postage stamps, the dimensions, weight, and contents of packets, and other such similar regulations as the Governor, from time to time, thinks necessary for the better execution of this Ordinance.

All such regulations as affect the public shall be published in the Gazette, and shall have no effect until so published.

XIII. If a question arises whether any article of correspondence is a letter, or whether any publication is a newspaper or a supple- ment, or whether any packet is a book packet or pattern or sample packet, within the meaning of this Ordinance, or of any order in Council, or regulations made thereunder, the decision thereon of the Postmaster General shall be final, save that the Governor may, if he thinks fit, on the application of any person interested, reverse or modify the decision, and order accordingly.

XIV. All correspondence which arrives in this Colony fully pondence to be paid according to the rates in force for the time being shall be delivered or delivered from the Post Office without delay and without further without delav. charge.

transmitted

[Ibid, sec. 9.]