709292-1868-GOVERNMENT-NOTIFICATION-NO-45 — Page 1

IT.

THE HONGKONG

Government Gazette.

No. 17.

Published by Authority.

VICTORIA, SATURDAY, 25TH APRIL, 1868.

VOL. XIV.

No. 45.

GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.

The following Despatch from His Grace The Duke of BUCKINGHAM and CHANDOS and its enclosures are published for general information.

By Command,

CECIL C. SMITH, Acting Colonial Secretary.

Colonial Secretary's Office, Hongkong, 20th April, 1868.

Hongkong. No. 50.

DOWNING STREET, 6th March, 1868.

SIR, With reference to my Despatch No. 164 of the 26th of December I have the honor to transmit to you for your information and guidance a Copy of a further letter from the General Post Office enclosing Copies of a Treasury Warrant authorising the transmission by the Post, at a reduced charge of three pence per quarter pound, of Books and Patterns or Samples of Merchandise between Hongkong and Shanghae, and between Hongkong or Shanghae and any other Port in China or Japan at which the British Mail Packets call.-I have the honor to be, Sir, Your most obedient humble Servant.

Governor

SIR RICHARD GRAVES MACDONNELL, C.B.,

&c.,

&c.,

&'c.

(COPY.)

BUCKINGHAM & CHANDOS.

Mr. John Tilly to Sir F. Rogers.

GENERAL POST OFFICE, 28th February, 1868.

SIR,-Referring to my letter of the 21st December last, on the subject of the improvements proposed to be made in the Mail Service in China and Japan, I am directed by the Postmaster General to state to you, for the information of the Duke of BUCKINGHAM AND CHANDOS, that a Treasury Warrant has been issued authorising the transmission by the post, at a reduced charge of three pence per quarter pound, of Books and Patterns or Samples of Merchandise between Hongkong and Shanghae, and between Hongkong or Shanghae and any other Port in China or Japan at which the British Mail Packets call. This Warrant is appointed to come into operation on the 1st April next, and I enclose six copies of it for transmission to the Governor of Hongkong.

The Postmaster General desires me also to state that the privilege of Registration will henceforth be permitted to letters addressed to or sent by persons residing at any of the Ports in China and Japan, at which this Department maintains Packet Agents, viz: at Shanghae, Canton, Swatow, Amoy, Foochow, Ningpo, Yokohama and Nagasaki; and that the books and forms necessary for carrying this arrangement into operation have been sent from this Office to the Postmaster General of Hongkong. I have, &c.

(Signed,)

JOHN TILLY.

SIR FREDERIC Rogers, Bart.,

&c., &c., &c.

Colonial Office.

TREASURY WARRANT.

Whereas by an Act of Parliament passed in the fourth year of the reign of Her Majesty, chapter 90, for the regulation of the duties of postage, certain scales of weight and rates of postage were fixed and made chargeable and payable upon, for, or in respect of letters, newspapers, Parliamentary proceedings, and printed papers transmitted and forwarded by the post, and various regulations were made for facilitating the transmission of such letters and papers by the post; and by the same Act powers were given to the Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury from time to time, and at any time thereafter, by Warrant, under their hands, to alter and fix any of the rates of postage therein mentioned.