The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1901-11-22

Philadelphia and European ports.
The annual report of the Second AS
sistant Postmaster General says that
during the last fiscal year the reor
ganization of the mail transportl don
service in Hawaii was completed on
the lines followed by the mail service
in the states. The cost of the Hawai-
ian mail service up to July ! last was
paid out of the special appropriation
provided therefor but since that time it
has been included in the general appro-
priations for carrying the mail. The
Assistant Postmaster General gives the
following summary of the mail service
| in the Territory OF Hawaii as 1t ex
listed July I last: There were twenty
four star routes with an aggregate
length of 472.S0 miles, on which the an
nual travel amounts to 129. 1868 miles,
at cost to the government, under eX-
listing contracts, of Sl6,S69. There are
eleven steamboat routes in the Terri
tory, over which mail is carried, the
aggregate length of these routes being
36i3 miles and the annual travel POS, $40
miles when carrying malls for the gov
eminent. This service costs the govern
ment s35, 160. There are also two rail-
roads in Hawaii on which mail Is car
ried, these two routes being Sl.2S miles
long and the annual pay by the gov
eminent for this service, $3,474.T. There
are twenty mail messenger routes in
the Territory with an aggregate length
of 1917 miles, this service costing the
government $5,l14, annually.
Summing up the Department shows
that there are fifty-seven mail routes of
all kinds in the Territory, with an ag-
gregate length of 4,349.05 miles and that
the cost Of all this transportation of
mail In Hawaii each year costs $780,
6l77l. 1t is plain that the postal busi-
ness in the Territory must be very
heavy to prevent large annual deficit.
The Department states that such mail
acquisitions as were made during the
past year for mail equipment for Ha-
wall were promptly filled. Orders have
been issued for material for the manu-
facture of an additional quantity of
distinctive equipment for the Philip
pine Islands.
The following statement about ocean
mail contracts, of interest to Hawaii,
Is made by the Second Assistant POST
ger:
"On November ! 1900. there went into
effect a contract with the Oceanic Steam
ship Company for carrying the mail from
San Francisco to Sydney. New South
Wales. calling at Honolulu Page Page
and Auckland once every three weeks
during period of ten years This serv-
ice Is performed in American-built steam
ships, complying with the requirements
of the act of congress of March 3. 1891,
and these steamers being larger and
faster than those formerly carrying such
mails, the time from San Francisco to
Sydney has been rednced from twenty
five days to twenty-one days.
There are now in operation six con-
tract routes for ocean mail service I'M
der the act of 1891, at cost of 96S
per annum, five of them being on the At
lantic and one on the Pacific. On May
Is, 1901, domestic contract took effect
for service by the Oceanic Steamship
Line between San Francisco and Homo
lulu, one round trip every three weeks.
Negotiations are now pending which II
Is expected will result in placing postal
clerks on all the steamers of the Oceanic
Steamship Line which ply between San
Francisco and Honolulu. for the pur-
pose OF asserting the mail while in tran
sit In either direction. This will avoid
delays In the terminal postoffices and IA
cilitate the prompt delivery and dispatch
OF mails upon the arrival OF the steamers
at terminal points.
Attention Is invited TO the fact that !.
this department has no contract for d. |