Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1899-11-02
NAIL AT MANILA.
The Philippines Postal System is Rap
idly Growing

HeIe Is part OF the FIRST report OF
the postal operations in the Philip.
pines made by F.W. Vaillie, director Of
posts. Mr.. Vaillie came cut with the
second expedition last summer and
reached Cavite on June Is. There was
a lot OF work on or about that time in
the way of landing soldiers, and the
army heads did not care SO very much
about establishment of a postoffice: so
1t was some time before Mr. Vaillie got
his supplies ashore Then a longer
time had to be taken in the fitting I'D
of the office, but by the time the third
expedition got around he was ready for
the mail it brought, and since then
there has been no delay on the part of
the office in handling everything in the
way of mail that the people in San
Francisco would give us.
The business has DEVELOPED from the
! little office in Cavite to a system of
considerable size with several more
quasi branches with the various posts
as at San Fernando and Candaba and
Balinag and linus. An army postoffice
is no fun, either, in the establishing or
in the running. Mr.. Vaillie brought
two experienced men with him. and he
found among the volunteers. who were
the main part Of the army at that time,
two or three who knew something
about postoft1ce work, and one who had
given up a place in the classified SER
vice to enlist. He managed to get
these men detailed to assist him, and
with few whom he broke in himself,
he got the Office running pretty
smoothly very soon after we got into
Manila
There was a great difficulty at the
start with the Spanish mail. We did
not know anything about the old regu-
lations and the new system of charges
helped to mix up the population of the
city. Finally Mr.. Vaillie got authority
to employ some of the old clerks who
had served under the Spaniards, and
generally that difficulty disappeared.
The mails from the states have been
very irregular 1t has seemed that the
pOStOffice people in San Francisco
studied to send the mail by the slowest
ships and by the most uncertain routes.
1t has come by jerks. Last summer.
when the transport service was far
from well organized and the employ
ment of so many Pacific liners had de-
moralized the regularity of the, Ameri-
can transPacific service, almost no
mail was sent by way of the Vancouver
liners, although that line kept its reg
ular triweekly service uninterrupted
by the war 1t was no uncommon
thing in those days to have a mail take
eight weeks or more in transit, and
many time letters have come through
which were written two weeks after
letters that were behind them in de-
livery. Vaillie did his best to remedy
this irregularity, but it takes so long
for the round trip that it was months
before the postoffice authorities in the
states began to heed his protests.
With the establishment of the regu-
lar trans-Pacifc transport service
there has come decided Improvement
in the mail facilities, and now it is
possible to get the magazines in the
month for which they are published,
and our letters and papers are nearly
always received within q month Of
their date. 1t seems as if the states
had been brought several hundreds Of
miles nearer, and we were not so far
from home. The service in the Office
here is very prompt and satisfactory.
The return of the volunteers has given
Mr.. Vaillies new lot Of men to break
in, but one or two of the old ones have
taken their discharges here and stayed
on in the office.
There was one long delay in for
warding mail from here last summer
that perhaps, was not understood very
clearly at home. It occurred in the
latter part of May and the first Of June.
There was full month when no mail
was made up to leave this Office be-
cause of the quarantine on ac-
count of the breaking ont in that
city Of the bubonic plague All ships
leaving HongkOng were held Up by the
Japanese at Nagasaki for nine days.
There were several transports lying
in the harbor here at the time and it
seemed as if some of them must be
made ready to send back very soon.
But one thing and another interfered
and none was sent Each time when
Mr.. Vaillie would make up his mind to
send the mail by way of HongkOng and
let it be guaranteed at Nagasaki, he
would get word that transport surely
would sail for home very soon, and Of
course the transport would beat the
regular liner by several days. The
average time Of transport from here
to San Francisco is from week to ten
days shorter than by way of Hongkong
and the liner anyway, and so he held
on. In the end it was month before
the transport sailed. Now there are
frequent transport sailings because the
volunteers are going home; but, rather
than run the risk Of being caught that
way a second time, Mr. Vailie is send
ing mails by way of Hongkong when
ever it seems likely that he will gain
time by it. Of the amount Of the
business done by the various Philip
pine branches, the report speaks for IT
self During the eleven months to
June 90, seventy-three mails were sent
to the United States and eighty-six
mails received from the United
States; 183 dispatches were made
to foreign ports, mostly to Hongkong
and Singapore, and 1872 mails received
from foreign ports; $50 dispatches
were made to Philippine points and 1873
mails received, not including the
double daily exchange with the clerk
on the train.