To the Editor of the "Norta-Caiva Dalny News."
Sm,—The laws of the Chinese Imperial Pos'-office hare been subject to various revisions of Into, and the latest. revision cannot but strike every resident in China as an exceedingly curi-us one.
While an addressed but unstamped velop', not exceeding a half ounce in weight, is liable Lo a tax of two cents on delivery, let that envelope but have a Edward upon Sr, and it is only delivered enny-stamp portrait of H. M. King pre-payment of an extra ten cents, This is so if the home I-ters have been collected at the British Post Office and inadvertently dropped into the I. P. O. without the necessary (one-cent) I. B. O. stamp; the tax on stich a letter is raised from two to twelve cents. But a further anomaly remains. Should the letter with the penny stamp have duly affixed to it the one cent I. P. 0. the power of the obnoxious crowned head is so great as to cancel the dragon altogether, and the twelve cents is chargel as though no drayon-stamp hid been affixed!
'Now it is the aim of every governing body to make the subjects ofts regulations law-abiding; the "king of the cannibal islands," armed with club and cooking-oven, has this endeavour no less than the mow' cnlizhtened petliament or congress in the we! it is further the aim of every civilised governing body ike those governed law-respecting, wh Ives the making of such laws as the intelligent can respect within as well as outwardly observ and until we see sine rhyme or reason for the ton-cents tax on H. M.'s portrait, and some reason why the dragon should cease to be a dragon on a letter marked as his sphere of influence, the tax is not mere ten cents out of our pockets, but a far more serious tax on our respect for the T. P. 0. powers that be. The fiot that dollars and cents have foreign words upon them dors cause them to be regard-d as of doubtful value in up-country parts of China, But nowadays native dollars and cents and ten-cish pieces are marked with English words too! And as to the dragon ceasing to be dragon in the awe-inspiring pres. ence of a local representative of H. M. King Edward, every Minister in Peking and every Consul in China will assure us, the dragon is even more dragon-like when near. Dragons do not cave in" to the mere presence of a British officia!—except on envelopes.
Also, another curious thing is that mail letters with a twopenny-ha'penny stamp on them have sometimes, even of ed through the I. P.O. untaxed. This perhaps feom a Chinese fondness for old usage. It is a survival of the times when the I. P. 0. delivered mail-letters at one's door. The taxis levied on some twopenny-ha'penny letters, but not on all. The reason of the latter omission can only be surmised on the above theory.
Those who profess to know, however, give another reason, that until the I. P. 0. is admitted into ths Postal Union it metns "to kick." Well, if there be any truth in that, there are more self-respecting methods of endeavouring to enter a gentleman's door than kicking it down! Cannot the land of the dragon, especially with its efficient Western advisers, suggest some method in accord with civilised procedure, such as will produce respect for law and the law-giver in those who, like your obedient servant, are 'WHth September.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.