Saturday press. [volume] (Honolulu, H.I.) 1880-1885, 1881-04-09
Report Of Committee on Postal Convention.

! HoSoLuru. April 9Th. 1881.
His Excellency II. A. p. Carter, Minister of the
Interior;
SR;- We, the undersigned. having been ap-
pointed by you TO examine the advsability of the
Hawaiian Kingdom entering the Universal Postal
Union, beg TO report as follows,
We have met on several occasions and have
made ourselves acquainted, M far m lay In our
power, with the details Of the system. We have
read n number of communications made by Mr..
Martin; the Hawaiian representative at Paris,
been under discussion for severe, years, and that
the Government have accumulated q considerable
quantity OF information upon the subject. We
regret that the information or n resume OF IL has
not been made public long ago, SO that the COM
mnnity Mt large may have been able to become
acquainted with the general outline Of the system.
The question practically resolves itself into one
Union Tn examination We think 1t can. We
think that the loss Of postal revenue IL any, will
be very slight and that the gain to citizens in
convenience will be very. large. At the present
time our Post Office collects upon all outward
bound letters 8 cents per y ounce and upon
carriage of all mails shipped sailing vessels
both ways, and has also to- pay subsidy of ttpCo
q month to the steam line which connects us with
San Francisco. IL we enter the Postal Union
expenses for sending letters to the coast will not
be any greater than they are at present. and our
expenses for bringing letters down will be nothing
for the United States will then DO bound to for
ward our letters here free of charge At the pres
ent time also, every individual in the
community who has correspondence with Europe
the postal anus revenue OF he United States
for forwarding his letters thither Were we
to enter the Postal Union, this charge would
no longer wholly go into the revenue of the United
States Post Office, but would partly accrue to our
own Government.
We would suggest that on entering the Postal
Union reduction should be made of our postal
charges in the following manner, taking letters
our example only We may say here that 1t Is TO
be regretted that the postal authorities In this
country have no statistics to the freight Of let
tiers. originating from their office, and absolutely
no statistics whatever either upon the weight
number of newspapers that pass through their
| hands.
We would suggest to reduce the postage 10 the
United States to cents per 4 ounce, by which
there would be loss Of / cent to our Post Office,
rs ut present charged, while we would suggest the
change of the rate on letters to countries beyond
the United States to cents, BY which gain of
to the sender; though this gain to the Govern
ment il more apparent than real, as the difference
would be absorbed in the surtax and other charges
Of placing said letters at their respective destin
period ,9g3 letters were dispatched from our
| Post Office. 1t is estimated that three-fourths Of
these go no farther than the United States upon
| these would be loss of cent each, or say
$780, upon the remaining fourth there would be
gain to the Post Office Of cents each say, $3.50.
or altogether net loss OF revenue " $3.50. We
shall also have some extra charges 10 pay upon
letters crossing the American continent and At
,antic ocean for European countries these how
ever, at the highest figuring vii! not reach over
cents per letter of N ounce, and perhaps not 10
much. No amount Of revenue--to speak OF can
be expected from second and third class matter,
the rate of cents per ounces or part will be
about absorbed by the expense Of transit.
| The accompanying table of rates will show tho
mail matter to its several Postal Union destin-
i atoms: