184
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
DELIVERY OF REGISTERED LETTERS.
Mr. Danby, we believe, is not the only per- of the new rule with reference to the de- son who has felt aggrieved by the working
[September 1, 1897.
the registered letter system and to ensure, as far as possible, the absolute safety of every registered letter. The Post Office must lay down a very strict rule in the matter, and that rule must be observed in every case, otherwise we should have no non-receipt of registered letters. A regis end of blunders and complaints about the tered letter is usually to precious a docu- ment to be treated like a post-card and left with any irresponsible person who happens to be in the house or with anyone who cannot sign his name.
MACAO AND THE WEST BIVE: TRADE.
:
OFFICIAL SALARIES AND THE COST OF ADMINISTRATION. The papers laid on the table of the Legis- lative Council on Thursday with respect to certain official salaries are chiefly interesting on account of Lord RIPON's despatch sug-livery of registered letters, but a little con- gesting the holding of periodical inquiries sideration will show that there is no just into the public expenditure of the Crown colonies, the committees conducting such ground of complaint against the Post Office inquiries to consist mainly of unofficials.
in this matter. Formerly it was the cus- The interest in the salaries question will
tom for postmen to leave registered letters come when the report of the Committee at their addresses and call for the receipts appointed to consider certain applications
afterwards if there was no one at the address of later date and of greater importance than
to sign the receipt on delivery. Such a sys- those referred to in the correspondence just and owing to registered letters having tem was bound to result in confusion, published is presented. That report, we be- lieve, has been completed, but may possibly recently gone astray the new rule was in- have to be sent to the Colonial Office before stitute, under which a registered letter is The opening of the West River, instead of being published locally. Speaking generally, the same time. It is hardly correct to speak to bring serious loss upon that colony if the not given up unless the receipt is signed at proving an advantage to Macao, threatens we should say the present is an inopportune of this as a new rule, the latitude formerly present arrangements are continued. The time to enter upon any readjustment of allowed being in fact contrary to the whole Echo Macaense, which has had several salaries. The recent heavy drop in exchange principle of registration, which is supposed previous articles upon the subject, returns will severely affect the colony in its sterling to provide for the tracing of a letter from payments, which last year absorbed nearly the time it is given in at the Post Office Contemporary endorses the remarks made to it in its issue of the 20th August. Our one-fifth of the total revenue and will this until it is delivered to the addressee. by Consul BRENAN in his recent report year absorb much more. In the year If the letters are left at their addresses 1891 there was a general increase of
on the trade of China,to the effect that 35 per cent. in the salaries of officials
without a receipt trace of
them is there are in reality only two importing with.
English au
domicile
at once lost, as in the event of their going centres for foreign goods in China, namely, and of
ther the postman or the servants of the the South, and that from these great centres amissing it would be impossible to say whe-Shanghai in the North and Hongkong in
Mr. DANBY's case, as set forth in the cor- distribution in the respective districts served addressee were responsible. The facts in the goods are sent to secondary centres for respondence forwarded to us a few days by each. Macao, says the Echo, is one of letter to Mesdames LEONG SHII and Chow supplied both foreign and native goods to ago are that he dressed a registered these secondary centres, and has hitherto SHI, Hollywood Road. The letter presented in due course to the addressees,
the wealthy districts of the departments of Kwangchow-fu and Shuihing-fu in the pro- told, the postman their names, but he cannot who were well known at the house and who vince of Kwangtung. But these districts refused to give up
maintain steam communication neither of them could write or had a
the letter because with Macao, because they have no open port, and it is the opinion of commerical of strong complaint to the . Postmaster- speedily modified the centre of distribution chop." Mr. DANBY made this a subject men that unless this state or things is General, who wrote, in reply, stating that will be transferred from Macao to Samshui, in such cases it was usual for the addressee to the open port nearest to the districts in call at the Post Office for the letter and make question.
The commercial importance of reply to this explanation Mr. DANBY saidficance, whereas Hongkong would not suf a mark which is witnessed by two officers. In Macao would thus be reduced to insigni- the postman did not acquaint the women
fer at all, for it would continue to send to characterize the whole affair as with this procedure and he therefore Samshui and Canton the goods which were not formerly sent to Macao. The buyers who business-like." In commenting upon the formerly came to Macao will now go in case the Telegraph stamps it as an exhibit search of the same goods to Samshui or "tion of crass stupidity for which it would Canton in steain-launches, seeing that “be hard to find a parallel," and it goes on to
steam communication between the ports of say that the correspondence ''sets forth so
the interior is not prohibited. The Echo plainly the slipshod methods of the Postal therefore urges that steps should at once Department that it needs little comment." be taken to bring about a change in the Office officials have done to warrant such that the support of Hongkong cannot be We fail to see anything in what the Post present condition of affairs, and it suggests
a fierce term as * published correspondence suggests only one
crass stupidity." The counted upon, as there is no community of fault on the part of the Post Office, and that subject, it being a matter of indifference to interests between the two colonies on this
dressees what to do in order to obtain the go
that the postman did not tell the ad- Hongkong whether the Chinese merchants letter.
to. Macao or Samshui for their goods. The fact that the two colonies Convention is recalled, acted together in regard to the Opium but the cir- cumstances of the present case are differ-
20 per cent. in those of officials having a focal domicile, on account of the increased cost of living, which has been brought about in part by the fall in ex- change, and some time later the former class of officers were granted exchange compen sation. In comparison with other classes of the community, therefore, the officials have fared moderately well. Some days ago a correspondent suggested that we should advocate the granting of exchange compen- sation to the subordinate members of the service, in other words, to the locally dom- iciled officials. While this class no doubt suffers in common with every other class of the community from the increased cost of clothing and imported provisions we do not think it could establish a claim to exchange compensation, which is granted only to officers who are assumed to have sterling payments to make as part of their neces- sary current expenditure, as, for instance, for the education of their children in Eug land. For those officials whose expediture is confined to the colony itself the loss by exchange, though appreciable, is not so great as to constitute any very grave hard- ship, having regard to the increase of twenty per cent. in their salaries that they received six years ago. If exchange continues to decline no doubt some readjustment of offi- cial as well as other salaries will become necessary, but in view of the extreme un certainty hanging over the future of the colony's currency it would be better for both parties to wait for greater stability before bringing into force any new scale of pay. Whatever may be the decision on this point, however, the fact that periodi- cal inquiries are to be held regarding the public expenditure will give general satis- faction, as it will afford some security to the public against the needless multiplication of offices and against extravagance in the ad- ministration generally.
The China Gazette says:-We understand that the trial of the Crematorium made by the Shanghai Municipal Engineer's Department last week resulted in another disappointment. After great difficulty, heat said to equal 800 de- grees, about half of what is required to properly and completely incinerate a body, was generated. A mass of meat weighing 150 lbs. was then put into the chamber and after much fuss and her culean stoking, it was taken out in a semi-burnt up state, like an overdone joint. So far the great Crematorium would not cremate a cat.
was
It is not suprising to learn that there is a conflict of evidence on this point, and that the postman is said the course that should be adopted in order to have given full instructions as to to obtain the letter. Provided that is so, there is absolutely nothing in connection with the business that warrants the least censure of the Post Office. That depart- ment of the Government, we all know, is far from being the acme of perfection, but it is absurd to attempt to bring public ridicule upon it simply because a postman refused to deliver a registered letter to somebody who was unable to give a receipt for it. The non-receipt of the letter may have been very aggravating and perhaps have entailed in- convenience to the addressees, but it is neces- sury to look further ahead than that. It is necessary to consider the principle of
ent.
indifferent in the matter as the Echo repre- We are not sure that Hongkong is so sents, and we may at least say that if no active co-operation were afforded in any representa- tions Portugal may make at Peking Great Britain would at least sympathise with them and if referred to in any way in connection with the subject would give the Portuguese repre- sentative its moral support. It is to our
interest that foreign goods should find their way into China by the easiest and least circuitous routes, and it is prejudicial to trade that goods intended for Kongmun and Komchuk should first have to be taken to Samshni, higher up the river, in order to pay duty at the Customs.
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