The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1882-05-06
Postal SERVICES.
DUTIES. SUGGESTIONS, AND INNovA-
TONS RESULTING FROM THE UNI
yERSAL POSTAL UNION.
(C0HtnUed }

5-Money orders from abroad destined TO peo-
pie on the other islands TO be changed by the
Honolulu authorities into internal orders payable
I at the nearest island Office opened TO that system.
| OF, If preferred 10y the receiver. TO be paid over to the
Honolulu bank to the credit of such who may
have current accountKvith this institution. For
this exchange OF a Foreign money order into
national one, the Honolulu office would have to
deduct, from the sum to be paid, the ordinary fee
for internal orders.
Concerning the payment Of internal orders on
the Islands. the principal objection is the dis
lance that may separate the receiver from the
: paying office here l shall remark that those
4 .ong journeys 10 the office may be avoided, by
the fact that the modern Iuoney-order forms are
/ transferable by endorsement consequently, the
owners could easily get them collected through
friends or agents. or, according TO what Is done
in many countries France for examplel, at the
pages own risk, through the letter-carriers or
messengers themselves.
This plan seems as simple and safe for the
Government as il would be secure and con-
venient for the people, to whom 1t would prove a
great help, and for whom 1t would constitute,
specially for small amounts, a precious facility,
supplementary to the actual rather announcement
" Z antation order" system, and To the Bankers
bills OF exchange. From the comparison of the
limits adopted ia the different countries of the
Union, l should recommend the money orders
to be allowed between 80 cents and 500 and l
shall beg to call the attention Of the authorities,
if the.system Do adopted, on the silnplifed forms
suggested by {. :. Macdonald, Superintendent
of the Money Order System, in Washington, in
his very able report of November 9TH, 1881.
These forms, improved by suggestions from
certain European forms, would reduce to a mini
mum the clerical work necessary.
CoLLEcrNd SERVICE, Bills, ETC.
E-Au the great Powers have introduced in
their Internal Postal service the principle
which is rapidly becoming a matter of
International understanding-of giving to the
post-Otice the right of collecting for the public
all bills of exchange, drafts, invoices, receipts,
promissOry notes, and in general all commercial
and valuable papers, with or without protest i'll
case of non-payment. The simplest form to
which this system has been reduced to, seems to
me the law adopted in 1878 by the French Gov
eminent. The paper to be collected is sent as
an ordinary registered letter to the postmaster
of the office who is to collect it it Is presented
by the letter-carriers. If paid on presentation,
the postmaster sends back the funds by an ordi-
nary money order in favor of the depOsitor of
the bill, and if unpaid, the paper is sent back to
him free of postage. The fee proper to the col
lection business is deducted only from the sum
recovered. This innovation seems to me to
present for this country more interest for the
international service than for the internal one.
VALUE-PAYABLE ARTICLES.
In Germany and Austria it is, moreover,
allowed-for further accommodation of the COM
merce-and in consideration of the prepayment
of postage and n small commission on the value,
to send by post, packages of merchandise against
reimbursement value payable articles). In
India this service includes parcels or registered
book packages mp to a value of 500 rupees.
SUBSCRIPTIONS To NEWSPAPERS, ETC.
Prom the internal service of many coun-
tries the system of allowing the public to take
through the medium of the post-ofice subscrip-
tons to any regular newspaper or publication,
is quickly working into the international one.
The fees or commissions in the latter case are
divided between both administrations. 1t seems
TO produce, with bat little overwOrk, a noticeable
amount Of profit from the fees or percentage
collected on the amount of the subscription.
PARCEL Posr.
CA great international move and a great
improvement for the commerce were made in
1850, i'll the way of the parcel post, without
declaration of value. Before this date, some
postal administration did not receive and
transmit any packages over one pound in
weight others, on the contrary, had undertaken
a regular express business. In Germany, for
many years past, the post not only carried cor
respondence up to any weight, but also all kinds
of packages and parcels up to one hundred
pounds, and the same weight was accepted in
Russia. in spite of the immensely of a thinly-
populated territory. In Switzerland the limit is
40 pounds, and in the British Indias the post
accepts and conveys packages up to 81 pounds.
Moreover, several countries now exchange pack
ages up to 30 pounds in weight, but under the
lengthy formalities of declaration of value of
contents.
This could not be introduced to such an ex-
tent in the Universal International services, but
1t was unanimously agreed that an extraordinary
boon would be conferred on the ommerce by
allowing a larger facility than that afforded by
the few ounces of the sample post. As early as
1874, Germany proposed the general adoption of
a pared post, with a limit of 10 pounds. This
was further discussed in 1878, and became, on
the reduced footing of 6 pounds, an interna-
tional understanding between 20 States only in
1880; but even then the British Government,
with its usual narrowness of views for all out
side suggestions, refused to adhere, and only
acceeded this last year to that convention.
The essential feature of this useful and re-
markable understanding is that the fees of
transmission for parcel post are divided equally
between the sending and receiving administra-
tions, after compensating those who participate
retains its rights and usages for the collection
of custom duties. 1t is useless TO demonstrate
here that this innovation at first stipulated only
with n few countries-the United States, Eng
land, Germany and France, and extended to
Honolulu only-wOuld be of the greatest con-
venience for rapidly obtaining articles not
readily procurable here, and therefore ought to
be promptly studied by the Hawaiian Govern
ment.
POSTAL SAVINGS BANKs.
H.-The postal sayings banks, a thoroughly
English idea, first suggested in 1860, is the last
proof we have to mention of the wonderful
development of the postal services, and of the
remarkable elasticity found in the Institution
for embracing subjects utterly different from its
original mission of transmitting public and
official correspondence.
These banks have given the most extraor-
binary results in England, all over Europe, in
Canada. and even in Japan. In England
especially since it has been allowed to deposit
the smallest amounts OF savings tone shillingl
in the shape of collections of postage stamps
this creation has shown itself to be a great
benefit to the poor classes, as well as q self-sup-
porting institution, and what is better still, it
Yields n considerable profit to the department
lover $780, 600 Il year), as the capital collected