The St. Johns herald., 1895-02-07
ENGLAND'S PARCEL POST.
A System That Has Grown with
 Amazing Rapidity.
what Was an Unknown Convenience res k- fssfs Ago fs Now an Almost Ia> '. dispensHbfa Adianet to Daily Life.

The act authorizing the parcel pos tyss passed iu Iss9. But it may well b, imagined that tine was necessary tG mount an entirely new postal service without disorgsrizing the ordinary mails, and if wHs not until August l 1858, that the post Was actually placed at the disposal of the public. says tn, I.osdon Times.
 May 1, 1ss6. -a new scale of weight. and charges was issHed. The scale which stig obtains, ssceffded b. single instead of ,dnuble pounds, ant thus represented charge of Sd for thu first pound and 1IEd- for each sue ceeding pound. At the same time the maximpnn weight was raised to clever pounds a parcel of that weight bging carried. For lsd. E6npensation was promised for the loss or damage If any parcel in the post up to the sum of eL while further sums of e5 and G1O might be secured by the payment of penny and 2d respectively.
 The original scale of weights and charges was for a parcel not exceed ing one pound, 3d; up to three pounds. Sd: up to five pounds, ed. and up to seven pounds. Is. At seven pounds the post stopped. The maximum dimen. sions allowed were three and one-hal1 feet in length and six feet in length and girth combined, and these dimen. sions have been found throughout tc 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 1ss6 rose to 31,OOO.00O. 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 1, 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 1886 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 liharal scale. For the ordinary registration, a fee of 2d, compensation up to 95 was promised, while for every additional Id another s5 could be secured up to a maximum of &25. At the same time the compen- sation payable on an unregistered par eel was raised from e1 to @. Finally, December last, scale of payment rising to a50 (which had previously been applied to the post to India and the West Indies) was adopted; and iti now possible to obtain compensation up to that amount by payment of the registration fee of 2d and additional fee of 9d, or lid in all. It is not sur. prising that under the influence of these improvements the number oi parcels sent per head of the popula. tion 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 o&