Sessional_Paper_1891 — Page 147

143

No. 9/2

6

91.

HONGKONG.

THE POSTMASTER GENERAL'S REPORT FOR 1890.

Presented to the Legislative Council, by Command of His Excellency the Governor, on the 10th April, 1891.

GENERAL POST OFFICE, HONGKONG, March 6th, 1891.

SIR,-In presenting my report on the British Postal Service in Hongkong and China during the year 1890, I feel compelled to advert at the beginning to the heavy loss sustained through the death of the late Postmaster General, Mr. LISTER, who, from the date of his appointment in April 1875 till the day he left Hongkong upon his last and fatal voyage in July, devoted a large portion of his experience and energy to the conduct of Postal matters. By his staff, he will always be remembered for his urbanity, insistence on details and personal capacity for work: whilst the public found in him the embodiment of civility and an officer always ready to redress legitimate grievances, and carry out practical popular reforms and proposals.

2. The Department has lost another zealous servant in the person of Mr. A. J. RODRIGUES, the second clerk, who joined the staff in February 1870.

3. During the year, the personnel of the Department has undergone considerable change. When I went on leave in April 1890, Mr. T. SERCOMBE-SMITH supplied my place and proved of valuable assistance to Mr. LISTER, who was for the next few months mostly confined to his room and bed. Upon Mr. LISTER's decease, I was appointed Acting Postmaster General with Mr. SMITH as second in command. On the 22nd March the withdrawal from the Colony of Z. M. BARRADAS, the Super- intendent of the Money Order Department, led to an investigation of his accounts which shewed heavy defalcations on his part. This officer was later on brought back to Hongkong and at the June Criminal Sessions sentenced to three years hard labour. His successor Mr. H. W. DIXON who was appointed on the 1st May has hitherto satisfactorily performed his duties. The adoption of a new system of checks upon the administration of the Money Order Department has placed the recurrence of frauds si- milar to those lately enacted beyond the pale of likelihood.

4. The Staff consists of 45 persons comprising:-

1 Postmaster General.

1 Assistant Postmaster General.

1 Accountant,

2 Money Order Clerks.

3 Marine Officers.

2 Chinese Assistants for Marine Officers.

11 Clerks.

3 Senior Chinese.

7 Postmen.

3 Peak and Kaulung Postmen.

6 Messengers.

5 Launch Crew.

45

To every officer my thanks are due, but especially to Messrs. ROCHA and MACHADO whose thorough intimacy with the whole range of postal concerns has proved invaluable.

5. The Consular Postal Agents in the various Coast and Riverine Ports have sustained their character for ability and zeal, and it was the most pleasing act of my last year's tenure of office to announce to them that the Secretary of State for the Colonies had yielded to their reiterated requests for an increase of salary.

6. In the course of 1890, the honorary Agency at Hoihow was converted into a salaried Agency, whilst the Agency at Tientsin, on the recommendation of the late Mr. LISTER, was discontinued. The postal matter passing through the hands of the Agent at that Port was inconsiderable, most of the correspondence being transmitted through the Chinese Customs Channels.

7. I had occasion to address the Government upon the often mentioned topic of illicit Chinese. Post Offices which flourish in the Chinese parts of Victoria. It will be remembered that I recommended that the right to establish such Post Offices should be farmed out and that I expressed an opinion that no other way of bringing the Chinese under a Postal System approximating to that to which the European Colonists are subject was possible so long as China possessed no Postal Administration of her own.

The plan proposed will in no way interfere with the peculiar postal facilities hitherto enjoyed by the sons of Hàn, but will secure to Government a portion of the takings which formerly enriched private individuals.