TRINIDAD : THEN AND NOW. 



348 



let me have a look for myself. ' 9 He consented and I 



went along with him into the sorting department and 

 began to search ; there I found the missing letter 

 carefully hidden away. There were, so far as I know, 

 no more complaints from Barbados. 



But let me resume about my journey to Nevis. 

 I had, of course, told Livingbird about the post- 

 master's boy in Nevis. On landing he attached him- 

 self to him and was not long in getting at the bottom 

 of the mystery. He had a list of the people from 

 Nevis residing in Trinidad — especially in the country 

 districts — who were in the habit of sending money to 

 their relatives in Nevis and he was able by the feel of 

 the letter and the post marks on the envelope to fair- 

 ly guess when money was enclosed and then he appro- 

 priated the letters. The boy was arrested, and on 

 being placed before the magistrate of Nevis he con- 

 fessed the whole matter and how he used to work. 

 Addressing the magistrate he said : " He call him- 

 self Livingbird, sir ! but he no living bird ; he a 

 jumby bird." 



The introduction of Post Office and postal orders 

 between this and other colonies put a stop to this sys- 

 tem of stealing from letters, as it did also in this 

 colony, where the offence was at the time pretty fre- 

 quent. Notwithstanding all the ups and downs of the 

 Post Office I am glad to be able to assert that there is 

 no institution in the colony that has made more rapid 

 strides than the postal system inaugurated by Mr. 

 Bulmer and so ably continued by his successor. Since 

 the early days of the Post Office co-operative store 



