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AUSTRALASIA
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AUSTRALASIA , lb lb lb lb See also:Commonwealth of Aus- tralia . 122,0 i,600,o 80,0 534,0 New See also:Zealand, See also:Fiji, &c. 56,0 753,0 40,0 333,0 Totals 178,0 2,353,0 120,0 867,0 See also:Grand totals . 3,009,01 23,831,0 2,711,0 9,165,0 2,656,770; See also:halfpenny packets, 12,439,377; See also:newspapers, 473,346; and parcels, 248,526; 195,145 of these last were re-issued. Articles sent by the halfpenny See also:post are destroyed at the See also:head offices if they cannot be delivered; but the sender may have such articles returned if he writes a See also:request to that effect on the outside of the packet, together with his name and address, and pays a second See also:postage on the return of the packet. The number of registered letters and letters containing See also:property sent through the post with insufficient addresses was 320,041. These letters contained £16,887 in See also:cash and See also:bank-notes, and £656,845 in bills, cheques, See also:money orders, postal orders and stamps. The See also:coin found loose in the post amounted to £1,380, as well as £12,272 in cheques and other forms of remittance. The table in opposite See also:column shows the estimated See also:weight of the mails (excluding parcels) exchanged with the See also:Foreign See also:British colonies and foreign countries in 1905-1906. Maus. The number of letters and post See also:cards may be roughly taken at 40 to the lb. During the same See also:year 2,474,003 parcels were despatched out of the See also:United See also:Kingdom, and 1,431,035 were received from the British colonies and other countries. See also:Germany, with 356,423, received the largest number of any one See also:country, and easily heads the See also:list of countries from which parcels were imported into the United Kingdom, with 474,669, See also:France coming next with 254,490.
On the 1st of See also:January 1889 a weekly all-See also:sea service to the Australasian colonies was opened. The rates were 4d. per z oz. for letters, and 2d. for post cards, as compared Foreign and with 6d. and 3d. by the quicker route. In the See also:Budget colonial
of 1890 See also:provision was made for a See also:lower and See also:uniform See also:Letter See also:rate of postage from the United Kingdom to See also:India Rates.
and the British colonies generally. The rates, which had hitherto varied from 21d. to 4d., 5d., or 6d. per z oz., were fixed at 22d. per a oz. The See also:change took effect on the 1st of January 1891, and resulted at the outset in a loss of £roo,000 a year. The See also:fourth postal See also:union See also:congress, which met at See also:Vienna in May and See also:June 1891 (third congress at See also:Lisbon, See also:February and See also: Chiefly at the instance of See also:Canada the duke announced that on and from See also:Christmas See also:Day 1898 an imperial See also:penny post would be established with such of the British colonies as were prepared to reciprocate. The new rates (1d. per z oz.), which had See also:long been advocated by Mr Henniker Heaton, were adopted then or shortly afterwards by the countries within the empire, with the exceptions of Australasia and the Cape, where the 22d. rate remained unaltered. The Cape came afterwards into the See also:scheme, and New Zealand joined in 1902. See also:Australia did not see its way to make the necessary See also:financial arrangements, but in 1905 agreed to receive without surcharge letters from other parts of the empire prepaid at 1d. per z oz. and reduced its outward postage to 2d. per z oz., raised to r oz. in 1907. In 1911 penny postage was adopted throughout the commonwealth and to the United Kingdom. Owing to the special relations existing between the governments of See also:Egypt and the United Kingdom, penny postage for letters passing between the United Kingdom and Egypt and the See also:Sudan was introduced in See also:December 1905; and the See also:Egyptian post See also:office subsequently arranged for the See also:adoption foreign) in different periods from the reorganization until 1905 of this rate with many of the British colonies. On the 1st of is as follows: October 1908 penny postage was established between See also:Great See also:Britain and the United States on the same lines as the imperial penny post. At the 1897 conference it was proposed that the See also:parcel rates with British possessions should be lowered and simplified by the adoption of a triple See also:scale for parcels exchanged by sea, namely, Is. Up to 3 lb, 2s. from 3 to 7 Ib, and 3s. from 7 to ii lb. This scale has been adopted by many of the British colonies. The parcel post has been gradually extended to nearly the whole civilized See also:world, while the rates have in many cases been considerably reduced. The United States remained an exception, and in 1902 an agreement was concluded with the See also:American See also:Express See also:Company for a parcel service. In See also:April 1904 an See also:official service was established with the United States post office, but the semi-official service is still maintained with the American Express Company. By the official service the limit of weight was 4 lb 6 oz., and the The decrease in the number of inland money orders till postage 2s. per parcel; by the semi-official service parcels up to 1890–1891 was due to the competition of postal orders, and to i i lb in weight may be sent, the rates ranging from 3s. to 6s. the reduction (See also:Jan. 1, 1878) of the See also:charge for registering a On the 1st of July 1908 the rates were revised. The limit of weight letter from 4d. to 2d.2 was increased to i i lb, the rate for a parcel being is. 6d. fora parcel up to 3 lb in weight, 2s. 6d. up to 7 lb, 3s. 6d. up to 9 Ib and In 1862 the issue of orders for larger sums was allowed: not 4s. 6d. for i i lb. exceeding £7, 9d.; not exceeding £ro, is. On the 1st of May 1871 a scale of charges was fixed as follows: On the 1st of January 1885 the post office at See also:Malta was orders not exceeding ios., id.; not exceeding £1, 2d.; not exceeding transferred from the See also:control of H.M. postmaster-general to that of the See also:local See also:administration, and a similar change was made as regards See also:Gibraltar on the 1st of June 1896. Remarkable improvements have been effected in the See also:speed and frequency of the mails sent abroad, and contracts are Foreign entered into from See also:time to time with the various Mall See also:mail steamship companies for additional or improved service. services. The transit charges for special trains conveying mails through France and See also:Italy for Egypt, India, Australia and the Far See also:East have been successively reduced until they now stand at the See also:ordinary Postal Union transit rates. Mention should be made of the See also:Army post office, which is now an essential See also:accompaniment of military operations. On Army post the outbreak of hostilities in See also:South See also:Africa in 1899, Office the British post office supplied 10 See also:officers and 392 See also:Corps. men to See also:deal with the mails of the forces, sell postage stamps, deal in postal orders, &c. Contingents were also sent by the See also:Canadian, Australian, and See also:Indian post offices. Including telegraphists and men of the army reserve, 3400 post office servants were sent to the front. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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