The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1900-01-18
Is ACTUALLY IN OPERATION IN
CHINATOWN.
Surprising Large Mails Handled in the
Guaranteed District-Is a Great Aid.
How it Works.

Free delivery of mail has been in
troduCed in Honolulu. II grew out of
the exigencies of the plague situation,
and is confined to the quarantined dis
trict of Chinatown. But it is in success
full and beneficial operation there and
shows not only what can be done, but
what probably will be done for the
whole city when the postal system of
the United states is extended to these
Islands.
w. II. Hits is postmaster-gen
for the quarantine district. He is also
stamp clerk, letter carrier, and the
whole postal bureau. He was appoint
cd by the Board of Health to take
charge of this matter in order to re-
duce as far as possible the hardships
and Inconvenience Of the quarantine,
especially to merchants and business
men The postal headquarters for the
district are on the Kaumakapili church
promises. People living in the district,
who have boxes at the post office, give
Mr. Hits their keys. Those who have
not boxes give him orders on the post
master for their mail. Armed with
| these he goes to the postOffice and gets
the mail, takes it back to his head
quarters and there sorts, and then
delivers it to the addresses. In sending
out mail the reverse process is taken
] ne ptOplt DIlUB MN lllell Hlctll IGdNs
to go into the post office, and he takes
it and mails it. The amount of mail
| handled i'm this way is surprising ia
people who have not given any thought
| to the subject. The average number
of pieces of mail handled since this ser
vice was inaugurated has been about
900. The largest mail handled in one
Gay was the day the Doric arrived from
! the Orient. There were 1855 pieces that
4 6ay mail & fup1ipata6
The handling of mail includes the
handling of all kinds of mail. Persons
ireceiving postoiiice money orders, sigr
the receipt, give it to Mr.. Hits, he col
lects the money and delivers ii to them
Registered letters received are handled
in the same way. So far there have
been no pOstottice money orders sert
from the quarantine district but there
have been several registered letters
Mr.. Hits also pays postotfice box rent
for quarantined people. Box rent and
money orders have already amounted
to several hundred dollars which he ha:
handled
The service has been of great benef
to merchants and business men. +!
means of 1t they can continue thei
business through agents who are ~
in quarantine, just the same as if the!
We're doing business through an agen
in another city or country by means o
mail communication. An instance o
how this works is given in the case o
Il Chinese merchant who received a bis
consignment of fresh fruits and vege
tables by the Australia. He could no
get out to attend to it or even to gc
his bills of lading. These Mr.. Hit
got for him. The merchant endorseC
them to his agent outside with direC
tions for handling the consignment
These went through the pOstoffice to tn
agent and the consignment of perish
able goods was properly handled
Mr.. Hits thinks this service ough
to be extended to the people in the de
tention camps, at least to the exten
of two or three deliveries and cOllec
tions a week. He is willing to under
take ii if he is authorized to. He ha
quite a quantity of mail addressed t.
people who since giving him their or
ders have been sent to the detention
camps.
Aside from it's utility this expert
ment in free local delivery Of mail /
interesting.