POST-OFFICE 



349 



that year was as follows : Inland orders, 9,027,750, 

 23,333,417; colonial orders, 453,102, 1,631,616; 

 foreign orders, 893,292, 2,200,872* 



Postal Orders. In pursuance of the recommenda- 

 tions of a committee appointed by the Treasury, of 

 which the late Mr George Moore, the philanthropist, 

 was chairman, the transmission of money by means 

 of postal orders was put into operation on the 1st 

 January 1881. This simple method of remitting 

 small sums of money has grown rapidly in public 

 favour, and each year adds largely to the amount 

 of business done. In 1890 the total number of 

 orders issued was 44,712,548, representing an aggre- 

 gate value of 17,737,802, 4s. 



Post-office Savings-banl;.i. By Act 24 Viet. chap. 

 19, a system of savings-banks in connection with 

 the post-office was established in 1861, affording 

 great facilities for thrift to the industrial classes 

 and to young people. The rate of interest payable 

 to depositors is 2J per cent., calculated upon com- 

 plete pounds remaining with the post-office com- 

 plete months. No single depositor may deposit 

 more than 30 in any one year. The number of 

 offices opened for savings-bank business up to 

 the 31st March 1862 was 2532, while on the 31st 

 December 1889 the number open was 9353. In this 

 latter year the deposits numbered 8, 101, 120, amount- 

 ing to 19,814,308, and the withdrawals were 

 2,757,848, amounting to 16,814,268. On the 31st 

 December 1889 a total amount, including interest, 

 remained to the credit of depositors of 62,999,620. 

 The interest credited to depositors for the year was 

 no less than 1,443,186. The post-office savings- 

 bank is largely used by friendly societies, provident 

 institutions, and penny banks as a safe place of 

 deposit for their funds. Since 1880 depositors have 

 been enabled to invest their savings in government 

 stocks with little or no trouble. On the 31st De- 

 cember 1889 the total amount of stock so held was 

 4,175,634, distributed over 46,993 persons. Under 

 regulations of 1888 the minimum amount of stock 

 purchasable was reduced from 10 to Is. See 



SAVINGS-BANKS. 



Government Insurances and Annuities. An Act 

 27 and 28 Viet. chap. 43, 1864, empowered the post- 

 master-general to grant life-insurance policies and 

 annuities within certain limited amounts ; and the 

 scheme was brought into operation on the 16th 

 April 1865. These branches of business have not 

 developed beyond very narrow limits, and, in so far 

 as the scheme may have been devised to make life 

 insurance and the buying annuities on the part of 

 the less well-to-do more general, the attempt has 

 hitherto proved a failure. 



Post-office Telegraphs. Prior to 1870 the business 

 of conveying telegraphic messages for the public 

 was in the hands of several rival telegraph com- 

 panies and the railway companies ; but by the Act 

 31 and 32 Viet. chap. 110, 1868, the postmaster- 

 general was authorised to acquire, work, and main- 

 tain electric telegraphs ; and by Act 32 and 33 

 Viet. chap. 73 he acquired ( with certain exceptions) 

 the exclusive privilege of sending telegraphic mes- 

 sages within the kingdom. The actual transfer of 

 the working system took place on the 5th February 

 1870. The tariff was, like the inland postage, a 

 uniform tariff within the United Kingdom, the 

 minimum charge being Is. for twenty words, with 

 free addresses. In the first complete year of the 

 new management ( 1870-71 ) the total number of 

 telegrams of all classes transmitted was 9,850,177. 

 On the 1st October 1885 the minimum charge for 

 a telegram was reduced to 6d. for twelve words, 

 addresses ceasing to l>e sent free. In the year 

 1889-90 the number of messages transmitted was 

 62,403,399. The total sum laid out as capital in 

 connection with the purchase of the telegraphs was 

 10,880,571 ; and the annual interest on this sum, 



amounting to 299,216, is not borne on the post- 

 office votes. In the year 1898 the number of tele- 

 grams was 68,810,786, and the revenue, 2,130,973. 

 The number of offices for postal telegraph business 

 in 1898 was 8175 (see TELEGRAPH ). The post-office 

 had also in 1899 53,000 miles of telephone trunk- 

 wires, and connections with the National Telephon" 

 Company's exchanges ( see TELEPHONE ). 



Parcel Post. This is the most recent of the 

 greater undertakings entered into by the post- 

 office. By the Post-office (Parcels) Act, 1882 (45 

 and 46 \ict. chap. 74), the post-office was em- 

 powered to convey parcels by post on different con- 

 ditions from ordinary postal packets ; the remuner- 

 ation to the railway companies for the conveyance 

 of the parcels in bulk being fixed at eleven-twen- 

 tieths of the gross inland postage received for the 

 parcels, the post-office performing all duties of col- 

 lection and delivery. This business was entered 

 upon by the post-office on the 1st August 1883, the 

 parcels conveyed being exclusively inland parcels. 

 At the outset the maximum weight of a parcel was 

 fixed at 7 Ib. On the 1st May 1886 the maximum 

 weight was raised to 11 Ib. , and an alteration made 

 in the scale of postage, the charge for a parcel of 11 

 Ib. being fixed at Is. 6d. In the first year of the 

 parcel post the number of parcels transmitted was 

 upwards of 22,900,000. On the 1st July 1885 parcel 

 business was extended to certain of the colonies and 

 to foreign countries, and from year to year this con- 

 nection with places abroad becomes more widely 

 extended. In the year ended 31st March 1890 the 

 total number of parcels of all kinds delivered in 

 the United Kingdom was 42,852,570, the gross 

 postage upon which was 952,113. This vast 

 system of parcel carriage is said not to have 

 damaged to any very considerable extent the 

 parcels business of the railway companies, and 

 consequently it must be held to be a new con- 

 venience created for the public, the value of which 

 it is impossible to estimate. 



Inland Revenue Licenses. Through the medium 

 of the post-office the inland revenue department 

 finds a ready means of issuing a great variety of 

 licenses throughout the country. In the year 

 ended the 31st March 1890 the number of licenses 

 so distributed was 1,518,136, representing a sum 

 of 908,163. 



Mail-packet Service. Occasional reference is 

 made in old writings, and in official records, to the 

 employment of vessels called packets, for the con- 

 veyance of the mails, but there seems hardly any 

 continuous account of the services performed by 

 those vessels. In the time of Charles I. packets 

 between Dublin and Chester, and l>etween Milford 

 Haven and Waterford, conveyed government des- 

 patches, and in 1639 one Nicholas Herbert agreed 

 to have his barque in readiness at Whitehaven, 

 'with one sufficient master, and other meet and 

 able sailors,' to earn' letters for His Majesty or 

 the council at Dublin for 10 per lunar month. It 

 would seem that for some time anterior to 1788 the 

 packets belonged either to the crown, to members 

 of the post-office staff, or to their friends, for in 

 that year a commission upon fees of public offices 

 recommended that this system should be aban- 

 doned, and that contracts should be obtained by 

 public advertisement. The recommendation was, 

 however, only partially acted upon at that time, 

 and no public contracts were entered into, appar- 

 ently, until after 1837, at which period the packet 

 service was placed under the management of the 

 Admiralty. Another committee in 1848 strongly 

 urged an extension of the contract system, and a 

 similar recommendation was made by Lord Can- 

 ning's Committee of Inquiry into packet-contracts 

 in 1853. This committee also recommended that 

 the stipulation as to the arming of the packets 



