The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-11-10
THE CHINESE posroTT1cE.

teleSlapnlC message rom FeklnS Ill., forms us-has requested Sir Robert Hart, of the Imperial Maritime Gus toms, to reorganiZe the postal system of the empire This decision affords another proof that China is awakening at last to a proper consciousness of it's | backward state, and allows one to in- dulge the hope that efforts will soon be made in other directions to bring the country more into line with modern progress. The Chinese post, as it stands, Is altogether different from anything to be found in any other coun- | try which pretends to civilization. It is | in the hands of private individuals. There is q special courier service for the conveyance of imperial edicts and other official dispatches; but this cor responds to the corps of Queens mes sengers which we have in Great Brit | ain, and is altogether distinct from the | postal system An exception must pc made also in the case of treaty ports, | where the different nations have their | own postoffices, the various consuls be- | ing regarded as the postmasters for their several countries. They take charge of and transact communica- tions intended for foreign countries, and they are responsible (with limited responsibility for communications ad- | dressed to dwellers in the district over which their jurisdiction extends. For eigners living in the interior or awaw from the treaty ports must make their own arrangements for transmitting their letters and packages to the near | acfo nc,L yxyh vxyjIJ forwarded Save when a friend or neighbor is making journey to that particular place. the only course at their disposal assuming that they do not care to employ a special messenger is to intrust the matter to a native letter shop"
 These letter shops are found in great numbers in every town of the empire, and not even the most insignificant vil- lage is without one or more. In Shang- hai alone there are something like two hundred, and the rates of transmission are kept low by reason of the competi- ton. For this same reason the shop keepers are very obliging, and the ser vice they afford Is, under the difficult nature of the circumstances, singular ly satisfactory They cannot afford to risk their reputation by bad work. and l it says much for the system as 1t IS carried out, that those foreigners who are under the necessity of avaiilng themselves of it speak well of 1t in re- gard to security, though naturally they
 do not say much for 1t in the matter of rapid delivery. The Ietter-shop men do not use stamps, but their particular "chop'' or seal is always affixed to the envelope or package-for packages of moderate size and weight are carried; and they will insure the sender against 1 loss When given in a ''letter shop the contents of an envelope are, displayed before it is sealed and stamped with the chop of the shop. Charges for trans mission of valuables are made on a percentage of declared value, and, as with letters, these differ according to the distance to be carried. A receipt is l given, and the shopkeeper then be- comes responsible either for it's safe de- livery with unbroken seal or for it's re- turn to the sender.
 | Owing as we have hinted. to the com- petition that exists in large cities and thickly populated districts, this is ne- | cessary if the shopkeeper hopes to re- | tain his customers. In some parts of the empire about twothirds of the ex- pense of transmission Is paid by the sender, the remainder being collected from the receiver; thus the shop is se- cured against entire loss from transient l customers. Another feature much ap- preciated by native merchants is that of Keeping an open account with the shop. Charges are entered against reg ular customers and settlements are made monthly. In case of loss it Is sell dom necessary to call in the aid of courts the force of competition being sufficient to ensure reasonable settle ment. The employees of the several shops go from house to house seeking customers. In the northern provinces where horses are plentiful and roads re- latively good, the letter carriers con- monly use horses or donkeys, which are supplied at stations about fen miles apart. Each messenger carries from seventy to eighty pounds of posta' matter, and travels about five miles ar hour. When he arrives at station 8 few minutes only are allowed to change horses and he is off again till the end oi his route is reached, when the bag is
 given to a fresh man, who starts al once no matter what may be the houl of the day or night, and regardless o1
 wind, rain heat or cold, until he, too
 has completed his service and handed
 the parcel to a third messenger, ant
 thus 1t reaches it's destination. Fol
 short distances, and in all the centra
 and southern parts of China, the mes
 senger travels on foot at rapid pace This service would be liable to highway
 robbery, but the robber bands of eacl
 district collect blackmail, and for tn, sums paid them regularly they not only
 do not molest the messengers them
 selves, but agree to keep others iron
 doing so.
 There are two kinds of stamps know, among dealers as Chinese stamps, Tn : first was introduced by Sir Robert liar
 (who is to reorganize the whole\ sys
 tem) and is used only in the custom
 service. The other is local Shangha
 stamp used by company carrying let
 ters about the city of Shanghai and t
 outposts where there are foreign con
 suls, chiefly on the Yangtze river ant to the ports of Ningpo and Foochow il the south; Chefoo, Tien-Tsin and Pc
 king in the north. These two system
 are entirely in the hands of foreigners The Chinese government and the Chi nese people have for some years beel toying with this question of postal re form Four years ago, for instance, tn