Her Majesty's Mails Part 23

(_d_) Interest at the rate of 2_l._ 10_s._ per cent. is given on all money deposited.

(_e_) Secrecy is observed with respect to the names of depositors in post-office banks, and the amounts of their deposits.

(_f_) Depositors have direct Government security for the prompt repayment, with interest, of all their money.

(_g_) Married women may deposit money in these banks, and money so deposited will be paid to the _depositor_, unless her husband give notice of marriage, in writing, and claim payment of the deposits.

(_h_) Money may also be deposited by, or in behalf of, minors.

Unlike some ordinary savings-bank, depositors over seven years of age are treated here as persons of full age, though minors under seven cannot withdraw, or have drawn, their deposits until they attain that age.

(_i_) Charitable societies and penny-banks may deposit their funds in the Post-Office banks, but a copy of their rules must, in the first instance, be sent to the Postmaster-General. Special aid is given to penny-banks established in connexion with those of the Post-Office.

(_j_) Friendly societies, duly certified by the Registrar of these societies, may also deposit their funds, without limitation or amount, under the same condition.

(_k_) A depositor in an old savings-bank may have his money transferred to the Post-Office banks with the greatest ease. He has only to apply to the trustees of the old savings-bank for a certificate of transfer (in the form prescribed by the Act of Parliament regulating the transactions of these banks, viz. 24 Vict.

cap. 14), and he can then offer the certificate to the Post-Office bank, and it will be received as if it were a cheque. Of course he can draw out from one bank and pay into the other in the usual way, but the transfer certificate will save him both trouble and risk.

(_l_) A depositor in any one of the Post-Office savings-banks may continue his payments in any other bank at pleasure without notice or change of book. The same facilities of withdrawal, as we have previously shown, are also extended to him.

(_m_) Additional information may be obtained at any post-office, or by application to the Controller, Savings-Bank Department, General Post-Office, London. All applications of this kind, or any letters on the business of the savings-banks, as well as the replies thereto, pa.s.s and repa.s.s free of postage.

MISCELLANEOUS REGULATIONS.

1. Pet.i.tions and addresses to Her Majesty, or to members of either House of Parliament, forwarded for presentation to either House, may be sent _free_, provided that they do not weigh more than two pounds, and are either without covers, or enclosed in covers open at the ends or sides.

They must not contain any writing of the nature of a letter, and if, upon examination, anything of the kind be found, the packet is liable to be charged under the book-post arrangement.

2. Letters on the business of the Post-Office, relating to any of its numerous branches, may be forwarded to the head offices of London, Edinburgh, or Dublin, by the public, free of all postage. Letters for the different departments of the Government in London may be prepaid, or otherwise, at the option of the sender.

3. Letters addressed by the public to the district surveyors of the Post-Office, on postal business, may also be sent without postage, though all letters addressed to local postmasters should be prepaid by stamps.

4. It is absolutely forbidden that information respecting letters pa.s.sing through the Post-Office should be given to any persons except those to whom such letters are addressed. Post-Office officials are strictly prohibited from making known official information of a private character, or, in fact, any information on the private affairs of any person which may be gathered from their correspondence.

5. Letters once posted cannot be returned to the writers under any pretence whatever--not even to alter the address, or even the name, on a letter. Further, postmasters have not the power to _delay forwarding_, according to the address, any letter, even though a request to that effect be made on the envelope, or to them personally, either orally or in writing. Each letter, put into the Post-Office, is forwarded, according to its address, by the _first mail_ leaving the place, unless, indeed, it be posted "too late," when it is not forwarded till the next succeeding mail.

6. Each postmaster is required to display a notice in the most conspicuous position in his office, giving every necessary information respecting the time of despatch and receipt of mails, delivery of letters, hours of attendance, &c. &c.

7. On Sundays there is usually but one delivery of letters, viz. in the morning, and two hours are allowed during which the public may purchase postage-stamps, have letters registered, or pay foreign and colonial letters, &c.; but for the rest of the day all other duties, so far as the public are concerned, are wholly suspended. In the General Post-Office in London no attendance is given to the public. In all the towns of Scotland, and also in one or two towns in England, no delivery of letters takes place from door to door, but the public may have them by applying during the time fixed for attendance at the post-office.

8. In England and Ireland, where, as a rule, letters are delivered on Sunday mornings, arrangements are made under which any person may have his letters kept at the post-office till Monday morning by simply addressing a written request to the postmaster to that effect. Of course, all the correspondence for such applicant is kept, even supposing some of it should be marked "immediate;" and no distinction is allowed. Letters directed to be kept at the post-office in this way cannot be delivered from the post-office window, except in the case of holders of private boxes, who may either call for their letters or not, as they may think proper. Instructions sent to the postmasters of towns under this arrangement are binding for three months, nor can a request for a change be granted without a week's notice.

9. Any resident, in town or country, can have a private box at the post-office on payment of an appointed fee. That fee is generally fixed at a guinea per annum, payable in advance, and for a period of not less than a year. Private bags in addition are charged an extra sum.

10. "No postmaster is bound to give _change_, or is authorized to demand change; and when money is paid at a post-office, whether in change or otherwise, no question as to its right amount, goodness, or weight, can be entertained after it has left the counter."

11. Except in the case of foreign or colonial letters about to be prepaid in money, a postmaster or his clerks are not bound to weigh letters for the public, though they may do so provided their other duties will allow of it.

12. Postage-stamps or stamped envelopes (the latter to be had in packets or parts of packets, and charged at an uniform rate, viz. 2_s._ and 3_d._ for a packet of twenty-four envelopes) may be obtained at any post-office in the United Kingdom at any time during which the office is open--in most cases, from 7 or 7.30 A.M. till 10 P.M.

13. A licence to sell postage-stamps can be obtained, free of expense, by any respectable person, on application to the office of Inland Revenue, Somerset House, London, or (in the provinces) by application to the district stamp distributor.

14. Every rural messenger is authorized to sell stamps and embossed envelopes at the same price at which postmasters sell them; and when, in the country, the rural postman is applied to for these articles, he must either supply them, or (if he has none in his possession) must take letters with the postage in money, and carefully affix stamps to them when he arrives at the end of his journey.

15. Each postmaster is authorized to purchase postage-stamps from the public, if not soiled or otherwise damaged, at a fixed charge of 2 per cent. Single stamps will not be received, but those offered must be presented in strips containing at least two stamps adhering to each other. This arrangement was fixed upon primarily in order to discourage the transmission of coin by post.

16. Letter-carriers and rural messengers are prohibited at any time from distributing letters, newspapers, &c., except such as have pa.s.sed through the Post-Office. They are not allowed to receive any payment beyond the unpaid postage on letters or newspapers delivered.[209]

Further, in delivering letters, they are not allowed to deviate from the route laid down for them by the proper authorities.

17. Persons living within the free delivery of any town cannot obtain their letters at the post-office window, unless they rent a private box, in which case they may apply for them as often as a mail arrives. In some cases where there are not frequent deliveries of letters, persons may apply at the post-office for their letters arriving by a particular mail after which there is not an immediate delivery from door to door.

18. Persons having a distinct residence in any town cannot have their letters addressed to the post-office (except a private box be taken), and a postmaster is warranted, when such letters arrive so addressed, to send them out by the first delivery. The "Poste Restante" is meant for commercial travellers, tourists, and persons without any settled residence. Letters so addressed are kept in the office for one month, after which, if they are not called for, they are returned to the writers through the Dead-Letter Office. "s.h.i.+p-letters" in sea-port towns, or letters addressed to seamen on board s.h.i.+p expected to arrive at these towns, are kept _three_ months before they are thus dealt with.

19. When any letters, &c. remain undelivered, owing to the residences of the persons to whom they are addressed not being known, a list of such addresses is shown in the window of the post-office to which they may have been sent, during the time (only _one week_ in these cases) they are allowed to remain there.

20. Greenwich time is kept at the Post-Office.

LONDON DISTRICT POSTS.

1. The London district comprises all places within a circle of twelve miles from St. Martin's-le-Grand, including Cheshunt, Hampton, Hampton Court, Sunbury, and the post towns of Barnet, Waltham Cross, Romford, Bromley, Croydon, Kingston, and Hounslow.

2. There are ten postal districts, each of which is treated in many respects as a separate post town. The names of the districts are as follows, the initial letter or letters of the name forming the necessary abbreviation to each, viz.:--East Central, West Central, Western, South-Western, North-Western, Northern, North-Eastern, Eastern, South-Eastern, and Southern.

3. The portion of each district within three miles of the General Post-Office is designated the Town Delivery. Within the town limits there are eleven deliveries of letters daily, the first or princ.i.p.al commencing at 7.30 and generally concluded by 9 A.M.; the last delivery commences at 7.45 P.M.; there being something like hourly deliveries within the interval. Each town delivery occupies on an average forty-five minutes. There are seven despatches daily to the suburban districts.

4. As a general rule, the number of despatches from the suburban districts is the same as the number of deliveries.

5. Information relative to the time of delivery and the time for each despatch to the head office, and also from thence to the provinces, is afforded at each town and suburban receiving-house. At each of these houses, several hundreds in number, stamps are sold, letters are registered, and separate boxes are provided for "London District" and "General Post" letters.

THE "POSTE RESTANTE" AT THE GENERAL POST-OFFICE.

6. The "Poste Restante" arrangements for London are somewhat different to those in the provinces; but like the latter they are meant to provide for strangers and travellers who have no permanent abode in London,--residents in London not being allowed the privilege.

7. Letters addressed to "initials" cannot be received; if so addressed they are returned to their writers through the Returned Letter-Office.

8. Letters addressed "Post-Office, London," or "Poste Restante," are delivered only at the Poste Restante Office, on the south side of the hall of the General Post-Office, between the hours of 9 A.M. and 5 P.M.

9. All persons applying for letters at the Poste Restante must be prepared to give the necessary particulars to the clerk on duty, in order to prevent mistakes, and to insure the delivery of the letters to the persons to whom they properly belong. If the applicant be a subject of the United Kingdom (and subjects of states not issuing pa.s.sports are regarded as British subjects), he must be able to state from what place or district he expects letters, and produce some proof of identification; and if he sends for his letters the messenger must be supplied with this information, as well as show a written authority to receive them. If the applicant be a foreigner, he must produce his pa.s.sport; or should he send for his letters, the messenger must take it with him.

FOOTNOTES:

[206] The average weight of inland letters is now about a quarter of an ounce; that of colonial letters about a third of an ounce; of a foreign letter also about a quarter of an ounce. The average weight of newspapers is about three ounces, and of book-packets ten ounces.

[207] With charges extremely low, the Post-Office is victimized by all kinds of craftiness. The dodging of the proper payment is sometimes quite ludicrous. Hundreds of newspapers, for instance, are annually caught (and we may reasonably a.s.sume that thousands more escape) with short loving messages deftly inscribed between their paragraphs of type, or letters, different descriptions of light articles, and even money curiously imbedded in their folds. Almost everybody might tell of some adventure of this kind in his experience not only before penny-postage, but even after it.

[208] Moneys accruing to the revenue from lapsed orders are allowed to go into a fund for a.s.sisting officers of the Post-Office to pay their premiums on life a.s.surance policies. No officer, however, can be a.s.sisted to pay for a policy exceeding 300_l._