Sessional_Paper_1886-1887 — Page 247

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were

prevents this line being a very important factor in the mail routine, but it has been possible to establish, by its means, a direct Parcel Post to most countries of the Continent of Europe.

There was no parcel post to several important European countries ( France for instance) whilst the others served by a circuitous route via Gibraltar and London. Only six parcels were despatched by the German Packet which left on December 27th. It might be well for German residents in China, who are desirous of getting out any small articles from Germany, to let their friends in that country know that they can now forward parcels not exceeding three kilogrammes in weight to Hongkong or Chinese ports at a fixed postage of Fr. 4.25 per parcel.

7. The following figures as to the arrivals of the first two German mails in London may be of interest.

French Mail. German Mail

French Mail...

German Mail.

Left Hongkong .September 2. September 3. .September 30.

................ October 1.

Arrived in London

Days

October October 5

4

312

31

November 1 November 4

32

34

8. A correspondence has taken place between the Imperial Post Office, the Colonial Office, and this Government, as to the renewal of the Contract for transporting the English mails between Brindisi and Shanghai. There were only three offers, those, namely, of the P. & O. Co., of Mr. ALFRED HOLT, and of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company. One of the tenders of the first-named Company has been accepted, the mails to be carried for £265,000 a year for ten years. The report of this Department on the subject will be found in the Appendix (B).

9. Although the proposed trans-pacific line of steamers between Hongkong and British Columbia will not do much for this Colony so far as postal matters are concerned, its establishment is to be desired on many other grounds. Since the Pacific mail packets commenced running between this port and San Francisco, correspondence with Canada has increased. in the most marked manner, chiefly owing no doubt to the numbers of Chinese who have settled in Victoria (B. C.) and elsewhere.

10. The dispute between the Pacific mail Company and the United States Government, which led to the discontinuance of carrying inward mails from San Francisco by the Company's vessels, has been adjusted, and the mails now arrive by every steamer from San Francisco as before. The inconvenience of having the return mails frequently despatched from here on the day fixed for the leaving of the English or French packet still continues.

11. There has been no extension of Money Order business during the year, which is not a matter of regret, as the Money Order system was really growing too fast for the limited resources of the Department to keep pace with it. It has been found absolutely necessary to have more clerical assistance in the Money Order Office, and this has been provided without very much difficulty. The want of room, however, is increasingly and severely felt, and a simple remedy is not so easy to devise. The business of the Money Order Office, like too much of the work of this Department, is carried on in a dark and crowded corner, where literally there is often not room to turn, and where every square inch is economised as if it were a ship's cabin.

12. This want of room is yearly becoming a more serious question. The Sanitary Board has pointed out that the quarters inhabited by the Chinese staff are overcrowded. They certainly are according to European ideas, even according to Chinese ideas there is not much room to spare.

When foreign countries begin to claim their International right to have direct Parcel exchanges with Hongkong, it will be very difficult to see where the necessary room is to come from. A little additional space may be gained by building, and by a re-arrangement of verandahs &c., and then (unless it were possible to put on an additional storey) the limit will have been reached, and at much sacrifice of light and air. The Colony will be face to face with a demand for a new Post Office. The present building was finished in 1865, and was evidently intended to be final. When the office is rebuilt it should be constructed, not for existing needs, but for those of twenty years later.

13. The Secretary of State has consented, in view of the representations of this Department, to allow the employment of unsalaried probationers, in the Post Office only. Postal work is distinctly work which has to be learnt, a beginner, however intelligent, is somewhat worse than useless; he gets in the way, has to be shown everything, and he makes mistakes. Hence the desirability of having an extra hand always in training, so that when a vacancy does occur it has not to be filled by a raw recruit. 14. It may perhaps be permissible to point out how, in this Office, unlike most other Post Offices, everything has to be filtered through two languages, one of which at least is but very imperfectly understood by many of the clerks who use it. At home a postman reads the address on a letter and delivers it accordingly. Here he depends on one or two hastily written Chinese characters, and if there happens to be a similarity in sound between the name as dictated, or as written, and some other name (Hooper and Cooper, Tai-kù and Tai-kùn for instance) the chances of a mistake are very great.

*

* A letter was handed to a Chinese postman who was told to take it to Mr. X. Do you mean long-bearded X ?" he asked. The name being one that did not lend itself to Chinese pronunciation, the soubriquet of long-bearded X. had been invented to prevent errors. The same difficulty applies to names of streets, &c. Richmond Terrace is called the New six houses, West Terrace the Old six houses, the Albany is Figure 1 Row (because of its shape), Pedder's Hill is the Two Flagstaffs (ringh there are no flagstaffs there now), the Wellington Barracks are called after a Chinese character() which their ground plan is supposed to resemble.