National Republican., 1880-08-05
Imnortant postnI Ordar.
The postmastcr-gcncral yesterday issued the
following order:

The postmastcr-genera yesterday issued the
following order:
To secure uniformity OF system and greater OK.
pediuon in collecting the postal reveniIes and To
enable tho auditor of the treasury for this depart
ment to promptly settle the accounts of postmasters
and contractors as well as to keep an intelligent
control over the several annual appropriations
covering the transportation OF the inais-a task
which he states Is now practically impoSsble-it Is
Ordered, That the system Of collecting quarterly
balances IN the hands of pOstmastcrs, by Ahat are
known as collection orders" be hereby dlsc0n.
tinuei, and the "deposidng system" described in
the second paragraph of section 10 of the postal
regulations, be substituted. All postmasters there
fore at what arc now known as collection Offices
will hereafter, unless specially instructed other
wise deposit their surplus postal funds with such
deposaries and in such manner as may be di-
rccted by the third assistant postmaster-gcneral,
who will see that this order Is carried into effect
The change hereby ordered is intended TO opcr.
ate at once, and, therefore, will include tho bus.
ness of the current quarters. All collection orders
however, heretofore issued for balances remaining
on hand at the close Of the quarter ending June o D.
1882 will be honored by the postmlsters on whom
they are drawn, even though presented for pay
ment after the prOmulgattOn of this order.
ID, NJ. KEY, postmostergeueral.
The issuance of the above order grew out of
tho delays and embarrassmonts to the proper
auditing of tho accounts of q large number of
postmasters and mail contractors under tho
old system of collecting surplus funds in the
hands of these po5tmastors. Under this sys.
TEN collections were made from about 5000
oil Inc AsUJD pOSlOulctS III tle country by the
issue of what are known rs collection orders"
1t WAS the practice of the department to issue
to mail contractors blank collection orders"
on postmasters at the various offices along
their routes.
The contractors then collected from an indi.
vidual postmaster whatever surplus postal
funds he might have on hand the postmas.
ter taking credit for the same in his quarterly
report. In this manner considerable portion
of tho amount due mail contractors on the star
routes was paid by the department. These
orders being always for blank amounts, which
were ascertainabe only when presented for
payment, and chargeablc only when payment
was reported to tho department., there was
necessarily great delay in settling the accounts
of contractors in the star service who were paid
in this way and consequent uncertainty in tho
amount of expenditure thus authorized
Besides delaying settlement with contractors
the old system also caused great delay in tho
settlement Of the quarterly accounts of many
postmasters us the department was compelled
10 wait the convenience of contractors TO rs.
certain positively when and to what extent
collection orders" had been hOnored by post
masters on whom they were drawn. The new
"depositing system" simply ustructs post.
masters ut what have been heretofore known
rs collection offices" TO deposit their surplus
postal funds with some convenient govern.
ment depostary who will be designated by
the third assistant postmaster-gencral.