The Sun.
London, England, 1859-04-21 00:00:00

BOROUGH HOP.

There is still a steady, though not to say active, demand
for all new hops, the supply of which is very moderate, at
late rates. Yearlings are steady, and other kinds support
former terms.
Mid and East Kent pockets B4s to 147 s per cwt.
Weald of Kent do 66s to 84s
Sussex do 63s to 75s If

HAY MARKETS.
SMITHFIELD.—Meadow hay, £2 15s to £4 10s ; clover,
do., £4 Os to £5 ss; and straw, £1 4s to £1 8s per load.
A moderate supply, and a fair demand.
CUMBERLAND.—Meadow hay, £3 Os to £4 12s; clover
do., £4 Os to £5 5s ; and straw, £1 5s to £1 lOs per lead.
Trade steady.

THE POST-OFFICE

The fifth report, of which the following is a copy,
has just been published :
To THE RIGHT HON. THE LORDS COMMISSIONERS OF

HER MAJESTY'S TREASURY.
My Lords,—l have the honour to present to your
lordships the fifth annual report on the Post-office,
being that for the year 1858.
Your lordships will observe with satisfaction that
while postal facilities have been much increased,
and reductions have been made in the rates of post-
age on letters between the United Kingdom and
several foreign countries,there has been an increase
in the postafrevenues. .
EXTE/hION OF INLAND SERVICE.
Last year the number of post-offices in the United
Kingdom was increased by 134, making the whole
present number 11,235 ; of which 806 are head post-
offices and 10,429 sub-post-offices.
New and more commodious offices have been
opened at Cork, Swansea, Colchester, and Ports-
mouth.
The offices at Derby, Dumfries' Brighton,
Leeds,
Huddersfield, Nottingham, and Cambridge have
been enlarged and improved; and similar altera-
tions are about to made in the offices at Bath,
Rugby, Stafford, and Yarmouth.
Speaking '
of the Liverpool office, at which sundry
improvements have been made, the surveyor of the
district
says, " Sun-burners have been introduced ;
and for a uniform and beautiful light, and excellent
ventilation (the latter being much promoted by the
use of the sun-burner), the Liverpool sorting-office
stands unequalled."
Two branch offices have been established at Bris-
tol, affording great accommodation to portions of
the city, and considerable relief to the chief office.
Should further experience confirm the benefit of
this arrangement, I shall consider the expediency
Inc
of adopting it elsewhere. ne important advan-
tage it affords is the means of providing for a large
increase of postal business in any town without the
erection of a new chief office.
New sites, on which it itintended to build offices,
have been obtained at Edinburgh,
Dover; and measures are in Dundee, and
progress for providing
new or better offices at Canterbury, Lincoln, and
Southampton.
A site has also been obtained for the erection of
a large new office at Manchester; but, in deference
to the wishes of man the leading inhabitants, it:
has been determined
to ascertain whether it is
practicable to procure, on such terms as the case
will warrant, a site in substitution for this in
another part of the town, which it ha.s been repre-
sented would be more convenient to the inhabitants
generally.
With a view of making
in the large the amount of postal ac-
commodation
offices, money order
towns, by means of re-
ceivingorder offices, and road letter-
boxes, sufficient in aIT
ases'
and as far as practicable
uniformly
proportionate to the extent of population
has been made,
whindence, a complete revision
has resulted in a large exten-
sion of accommodation, and that without any in-
crease of expense,
indeed' with a positive saving,
owing to
a substitution in many cases of road letter i
boxes for receiving ion
houses—always an economical
exchange.
When the arrangements consequent upon this
revision shall have been completed (and this has
now nearly been done) no house in London, unless
in some exceptional
ter of a mile from a
will be more than a guar- 1
m a money order office, or more
than a furlong f
e,
where
either a receiving ffice or a
road letter bux ; and in the neighbourhood of the
Royal Exchan
ere the greatest number of let-
ters is posted, Exchange,
maximum distance will be less.
The augmentationdohas
in the number of road letter
boxes in London
posting letters for asmuch increased the facility of
the morning mails ; since it is
only from these letter boxes that so early a collec-
tion as that necessary for this despatch can be made;
and the increased facility thus afforded has ren-
dered it practicble to anticipate by one hour the
last eveningc om Tcommence
n ccollection
ea from the receiving offices, and
thus
in ri• that collection at nine in the even-
, instead of ten.
To , superadd a • far as practicable, the conve-
nienciet ohfas he
a re to e's
iving,-office to that of a road letter
box,in the neighbon arranged to supply any shopkeeper
ur.h ood of a letter box, who for the
sake of the
lieity to usual poundage and the increased pub-
trouble his
sh
, with 0...1), may be willing to undertake the
supply of postage stamps, with
printed postal
Copy, for _
_notices for exhibition, and with a
Guide. public reference, of the British Postal
The whole n
put up last limber of additional road letter boxes
gate of I,l6yBear was 463 ; makingpresent a a„re-
The
reports revision o
previous reports
resulted in laroe ' has
now been completed, and has
in Ireland ;
but extensions of these posts, especially
_ with ith lapse of time a necessity has
arisen for partial kind, on this new revisions, and works of the
in smaller
progsesg. scale, will no doubt always be
forAt 1,353 places free deliveries were established
including Yorkune last year, and 454
other places,
delive- w, Carlisle,
11Jyarras extended or otherwise '
improved.
for enablingalienlent, •
mentioned in the last report,
night at all the Public to post letters during the
havinahee offices b
ere there is night duty,
and Wale: found.i_ workw satisfactorily in England
Ireland. ' uas been extended to Scotland and
Although it b
to difficulties as not yet been practicable, owing
London districtof variens kinds,
chief Post-office
a suitable building to provide in every
has been sueltleie. 3'et eve_ district for a permanent
An interchange`Pled at ica7t
with not so furnished
a temporary office.
between all the of bags is
illistriets;
ann, now, therefore, made
communication
formed a chief obieetpween housen greater rapidity of
and house, which
postal districts If' -t
of
the division
,; vill, / hope be
of London into
As regards
tne tovqn 1"-' b soon fully attained.
every case (provided lxntions of
the letters posted they bear the district initials)
box for the same at a reeeivins•
district(l are
at
once
or road letter
district office for selected at the
soon be further accelliverY; and the process will
to a minimum the et•erated' 8° as te ti between o_ reduce almost
delivery of a letter pdrope drest he posting and
Much has been
nt one in earl. :sea,
postal improveme s whiei 3'ing forward the
in progress in the t u 1 have for sonic time been
don ; though, owins.ct 'ns them villa
Lon-
much still remains tbo
beo vast
amount
round Lon-
have been opened, from dmle' Nulew
sortingnt of detail,
offices
work with more facilitN Ivnlidich the lett
carriers
instances the times for 1").0t,-. "Peditione•r•
new deliveries,and collectioing havt ,_en, in many
collections have been extended,
and the intervals between thee . 11. established,
London have been made more c de .
spatches from
That the public have largclyelatil ,
of the increased facility of postal--"eu them • I
the London district come( ec'nnuni '•)e yes
luent on the teation in
provements is shown by the grea• • recent
number of district letters. pia increase in the
ing the 10 v
previous to 1857, when the '
improlimn ~ ears
tuts
though continuous and important, were etfeeted,
tively small, the annual rate of incrw 2e
compara-
what less than a million and a halfe.ase was carie-
, 'while during
the last two years the iru•rea .•
't has bail ng
i as fop
1 oNs :

1.01.
iti•
• ,
6,2T11,004)

In 15.;7
In 18.;s
and since the commencement of 1859 the rate of
increase has been still higher.
The augmentation of this class of letters during
the last two years has thus afforded an increase of
about £48,000 per annum in the gross revenue.
I feel pleasure in noticing the extensive com-
pliance by the public with the wishes of the de-
partment that the addresses of letters to London or
its neighbourhood should include the initials of the
postal district in which they are to be delivered ;
and in it, desire. - in that when, asthe London re-
ceiving offices, tl •
i -"etc arc two separate letter-boxes
for different
in postin,;,,e_ asses of letters, care should be taken,
Bs readiZarop the letters into the right box.
despoatoerate
public to e_
,3 of this kind on the part of the
sorting, with the department, the
letters are much e .
and ultimately the delivery of
At all the newilpcdited.
all the other new sOietriencted district offices, and at
been made for proviaing,°Mees, arrangements have
the letter carriers with
much better accommodation than formerly, and
been improved. Y of the old offices has
Some further progress has been ~-;„ ;
ing the nomenclature of the streets i-ra„-- al improv-
the numbering of houses ; but the- London and
main. work has
still to be accomplished.
During the last year 14 additional to
provided day mails to or from the r7elltros 'were
of one or other of the three parts of the United
Kingdom, and some of them with mails in ii,V,
directions ; and arrangements were made, which-
commenced on the Ist January of the present year,
for giving. for the first time, the advantage of a
day mail to several towns in the south-west of
England, including Plymouth and Devonport, and
for accelerating the existing day mail from London
to that district.
Supplementary day mails, mroreover, were esta-
blished with Birmingham, II olverhampton, Co-

ventry, and Epsom.
While, however,
. I havelad the pleasure of pro-
viding these additional mails, I
..havea been compelled
mail to -with regret to withdraw the a
Ennis-
killen and some other towns in thyat part of Ireland,
owing to the unwilling,n ess of the Dundalk and
'Enniskillen Railway Company to
continue the
; erviee for a payment which was the utmost that