The Wichita daily eagle., 1893-11-18
ENGLANDS PARCEL POST.
4 System That Has Grown with
Amazing EapidiOy.
What Was an Unknown Convenience Ten
Years Ago Is Now an Almost In
dispensable Adjupct TO
Daily Life.

The act authorizing the Parcel post
was passed in 1882. Bat Il may well be
| imagined that time was necessary to
mount IN entirely new postal service
without disorganizing tha ordinary
mails, and it was not until August /.
1888. that the post vas actually placed
at the disposal of the peblic. says tks
London Times.
May I. 1856, new scale of weights
and charges was issued. The scale,
which still obtains, ascended by
single instead of double pounds, and
thus represented charge of Sd for the
ceeding pound. At the same time the
maximum weight was raised to eleven
pounds, parcel of that weight being
carried for lsd. Compensation was
promised for the loss or damage of any
parcel in the post up to the sum of el,
while further sums of e5 and e10 might
be secured by the payment Of l penny
and I'd respectively.
The original scale of weights and
charges was for parcel not exceed
ing one pound, Sd: up TO three pounds.
5d; up to five pounds, Cd, and up to
seven pounds, Is. At seven pounds the
post stopped. The maximum dimen-
sions allowed were three and one-half
feet in length and six feet in length
and girth combined, and these dimen-
sious have been found throughout to
be sufficient to meet the public demand.
The effect of these changes at once
became visible. From June, 1886, on
wards, the number of parcels increased
by more than twenty per cent over the
number for the corresponding months
of the previous year, and the total
number of parcels carried in the year
1886 rose to 31,000,000. In the mean
time parcel posts had been established
with many colonies and foreign states.
The admirably managed post Office of
India and the post Office of Egypt Tor
ganized by the country were the first
to respond to the invitation of the
postmaster general, and the inter-
change of parcels with India. Burmah,
Alden and Egypt commenced July l,
1885.
At the end of another six months
Germany and Belgium, forerunners of
this country in parcel post enterprise,
had entered in similar relations, and
from the commencement OF 1856 the
work of connecting this country with
the rest of the world for the purpose
of interchanging parcels by post pro-
ceeded apace.
The next change of Importance took
place June 1, 1891, when the system of
registration was for the first time ex-
tended to inland parcels. together with
compensation on liberal scale. For
the ordinary registration, a fee of I'd,
compensation up to e5 was promised,
while for every additional Id another
95 could be secured up to maximum
of f25. At the same time the compen-
sation payable on an unregistered par
eel was raised from 81 to 60. Finally,
December last, a scale of payment
rising to $50 (which had previously |
been applied to the post to India and
the West Indies) was adopted; and it is
now possible to obtain compensation
up to that amount by payment of the
registra ton fee of I'd and additional
lee OI Su Or llu III all. IL Is not sur
prising that under the influence of
these improvements the number of
parcels sent per head of the popula-
ton has more than doubled since the
post was instituted.
So completely has the parcel post
now become an adjunct of daily life |
that it is almost difficult to realize
that ten years ago anyone wishing to
send parcel. even between two cen
ters of population, had no certainty
when it would be dispatched, when it
would be delivered. and how much he |
would have to pay: while rural districts |
were, for such purposes, practically out