The Sun.
London, England, 1859-04-22 00:00:00

THE POST-OFFICE

(Continued from the Sun of yesterday.)
MONEY ORDERS.
During the last year 127 new money order offices
were opened, viz., 104 in England and Wales, 14
in Ireland, and 9 in Scotland ; making the whole
number 2,360, exclusive of two colonial money
order offices in connection with the United Kingdom.
Total profit in each of the last 10 years :
Profit.
1849 £322
1850 3,236
18-51 7,437
1852 10,689
1853
1854 16,167
1855
1856 22,674
1847 24,175
1858 25,936
The increase in the number of money orders last
year (about 4 per cent.) is greater than that in
1857, though less than the average of the last five
years. The greatest increase was in Ireland, and
the least in Scotland. The money order system,
though now productive of a large profit in England
and Scotland, is still carried on at a loss in Ireland ;
this last result being attributable in part to the
larger proportion there of money orders for small
sums ; a class of orders, which, as stated in a pre-
vious report, does not defray its cost.
The year's accounts again furnish evidence of
increased means in Ireland of obtaining remunera.
tive labour ; the number of money orders issued in
Ireland and payable in England having increased
much more than the number issued in England and
payable in Ireland. The average value, moreover,
of each of the first class of orders is the greatest.
There has, for some time, been a provision both
at Gibraltar- and Malta for making remittances to
this country by means of money orders; and our
troops there seem to avail themselves of the ar-
rangement to a considerable extent ; about five
orders daily laeing issued at each place, notwith-
standing the commission is rather high, being 9d.
for sums not exceeding £2, and ls. 6d. for sums
between £2 and £5.
The void orders last year, viz., those which lapsed
to the revenue owing to non-application for pay-
ment, amounted to L 1,902, viz., in England and
Wales £1,517, in Ireland to £203, and in Scotland
to £lB2.
In proportion to the whole amount of orders in
the three countries, the greatest number of void
orders was in Ireland, and the least in England.
The proceeds of the void orders are always car-
ried to the fund for assisting the officers of the de-
partment to insure their lives ; indeed, this fund is
formed exclusively of the proceeds of these orders
and of unclaimed property found in dead letters.
COLONIAL POSTS.
The European and Australian Royal Mail Com-
pany, which for some time conveyed the mails be-
tween this country and Australia, but which per-
formed the service very ill and incurred heavy
penalties for overtime on the voyages and other
irregularities, has been permitted to terminate its
contract. The service (which hitherto has always
been in an unsatisfactory state) is now undertaken
by the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation
Company ; and I trust that it will be executed with
vigour and punctuality, the best guarantee for
which is the excellent manner in which this com-
pany has performed its other postal services,
together with the peculiar advantages which it
possesses for the service.
By the completion of the railway between Alex-
andria and Suez, and under the provisions of a new
agreement with the Pasha, the mails are now con-
veyed through Egypt with much greater expedition
than formerly ; and the transit has been further
expedited by an arrangement with the Peninsular
and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, under
which the packet containing the heavy part of
each mail, namely, that from Southampton, will
arrive at Alexandria a day earlier than the packet
from Marseilles ; so as to allow of the passengers,
goods, and mails brought by the first packet being
carried: on to Suez before the swifter mail arrives.
A provision, similar in principle, has been made for
the return mails.
In' accomplishing these objects, and in effecting
various improvements in the post-offices at Alex-
andria, Suez, Malta, and Gibraltar, much valuable
aid was afforded by Mr. Anthony Trollope, one of
the surveyors, who, for these purposes, was sent on
a special mission to the Mediterranean, and who is
now rendering an important service of a similar
kind in the West Indies.
The contract with the Union Steam Shipping
Company for the conveyance of a monthly mail to
the Cape of Good Hope (referred to in last report)
has been definitively settled, and the company is
perfuming the service in a very creditable manner.
The Government of Newfoundland has concluded
a contract with the Atlantic Royal Mail Steam
Navigation Company for the conveyance of mails,
once a month, between Galway and St. John's.
In consequence of the difficulties attending the
land conveyance between Halifax and Quebec, all
letters for Canada are now forwarded either direct
by Canadia mail packets or through the United
States.
The means of complete registration from the place
of posting to that of delivery have been extended
to letters addressed to New South Wales, Nova
Scotia, Newfoundland, and Bermuda.
The arrangements for sorting letters on board
ship, hitherto confined to the Australian mails,
having been found to work well, and greatly to
expedite the delivery of the letters, have been ex-
tended, within the present month, to the Indian
mails, and I am in communication with the Post-
masters-General of the United States and Canada,
with a view to the adoption of the same plan in the
packets between this country and North America.
It having been found that the use of English
postage stamps at Malta, Gibraltar, and Constanti-
nople led to no forgery, the privilege has been ex-
tended to the Beitish. West Indies, and to foreign
ports touched at by the mail packets on the Wes-
tern Coast of Africa. It is obvious that such an
arrangement is applicable only when the whole of
the postage belongs to the British Post-offfee.
The new Post-office at Gibraltar, mentioned in
the last report as in the course of erection, has been
completed and opened to the public.
FOREIGN POSTS.
I have had the pleasure of bringing to completion
the postal treaty with Spain referred to in previous
reports, and which had been long in hand. For this
success I am indebted in part to the exertions of
Mr. Edward Rea, whom I despatched to Madrid to
render assistance to our weba.ssador there, Lord
Howden, who expressed, in strong terms, his satis-
faction with Mr. Rea's proceedinqs.
Undcr the new treaty, the postage of letters has
been much reduced, registration is provided, and a
book post established.
The benefits of the treaty extend to the Balearic
and Canary Islands, and I hope they will soon in-
clude Cuba and Porto Rico.
With the zealous aid, also, of Mr. Howard, Bri-
tish Minister at Lisbon, assisted likewise by Mr.
Rea, I have concluded a new treaty with Portugal,
including, as in the case of Spain, a. large reduction
of postage and the establishment of a book post;
and, as soon as practicable after the treaty shall
have been ratified by the Cortes, the measure will
come into operation.
The very heavy postage of letters to Portugal and.
Madeira (which latter place will partake of the ad-
vantages of the new convention), and which have
remained with little alteration since 1808, have led
to repeated and just complaints from our merchants
and the relatives of the many invalids who resort
for health to Madeira ; but all past efforts to effect
a remedy had been fruitless. It is therefore with
peculiar satisfaction that I have brought this longs
protracted negotion to a successful issue.
Proposals for new postal conventions, including
a large reduction of postage and the establishment
of a book post, have been sent to Brazil, Chili,
Peru, Mexico, and all the other States in South and
Central America where there appeared any hope of
a successful result; and measures have been taken
for ascertaining whether at other places in that
part of the world reductions in British postage could
safely be made ; the danger to guard against being
the retention or imposition of a heavy local charge
which would almost—possibly altogether neu-
tralise the effect of our reduction.
At Buenos Ayres and the other parts of the Ar-
gentine Republic, and in Hayti, the alterations have
already been adopted and carried into effect ; as also,
with the exception of the book post, in Paraguay. On
the Ist August similar improvements will be made
in the postal arrangements with Nicaragua (with
which State a postal treaty has just been concluded),
and probably with the Mosquitos and some other
parts of Central America.
A low rate of postage has also been established
between this country. and Martinique, Guadeloupe,
Curaeoa, and the foreigm settlements on the Western
Coast of Africa I vfitA which latter there is now
also a book post.
The negotiations for a new convention with the
German Postal Union proceed very slowly, and those
with the United States make no progress whatever,
notwithstanding our proposal made more than two
years ago to thetinited States Post-office for a large
reduction in postage and for the establishment of a
book post.
Progress, however, has been made towards a new
ostal treaty with Holland; and like negotiations
have been entered into with Tuscany.
The Brazilian and Argentine mail service has
been much improved by increased speed in the
the
an alteration which has greatly shortened
lb° course of post by securing the arrival in. Eng-
land of the homeward packet a few days before the
departure of the outward packet.
I have sot yet been, able W east an impravanent

in the important mails between London and Paris,
and between London and Ostend, for which the
necessary negotiations are still pending. I hope
that ultimately all these mails will be ac elerated,
that the hours of despatch and arrival ill be im-
proved, and that the night service to Ostend will be
exchanged for a day service.
REVENUE AND EXPENDITUR
The gross revenue of the Post-office in each of
the years 1857 and 1858 was as follows :
POSTAGE.
1857. 1858.
England £2,437,053
Ireland
Scotland

--
£2,928,858 £2,975,939
COMMTSSION ON MONEY ORDERS.
England £90,806 £94,850
Ireland
Scotland . 8,463 8,786

106,855

111,596

£3,035,713 £3,087,535
The gross revenue properly
.appertaining to the
year 1858, adjusted chiefly with reference to the
balances due from and to the colonies and foreign
countries was £3,100,939, being an increase of
£82,792 on the adjusted gross revenue of 1857.
This increase is equal to nearly 21 per cent., as
comp"ired with an increase of nearly 5 per cent. in
the previous year, and with an average of about 4
per cent. in the last three years :