From tar "Cuma Towra."
Expressions of dissatisfaction have been published, principally in the Shanghai newspapers, with the recent changes Iso roached us, not without ground. The grievances most felt by those who have to dispatch small parcels, newspapers, etc., to places in the interior which come within the classification of '"inter-zone" places, rates to which have been very materially raised.
The public are within their rights in expressing their dislike of considerable increase in tariff rates. They want cheap rates, uniform practice, rapid transit, and regular deliveries. On the other hand the Post Office may fairly claim that it has given them this in the past, and even more. Before launching ourselves, therofore, into the controversy we have thought it right in the public interest to mako the best inquiries we could as to the attitude of the Post Office in this matter. This soams only just to the Post Office.
The resuits of our inquiries have we think, valuable and interesting. The Chinese Post Office, it need hardly be pointed out, has all the difficulties of inland conveyance to face. To overcome them, the Post Office must pa: pay, it must hare funds. To have funds its tariff charge must have some relation to the real cost of the work. Where steam reaches, transport is easy, anid over these areas the tariff of the Chinese Post Office is the lightest in the world, and the service is in some respects the it. Is there any other place, for instance, where closed letters may be posted and delivered in a few hours, for half a cent Mexican, as at Tientsin, or may be delivered such distances as from Tientsin to Shanghai for one cent, or half-penny (A cent is a farthing.)
But steam does not go everywhere, and where it does not go, the tariffs have had to be re-arranged. Here another complication hes arisen. Steam developing and the sphere of steam ought transit is daily growing and changing, while its trank lines are taking such directions through the country as to add yet another element in addition to steam and non-steam areas, namely from steam through non-steam to steam dostinations, and vice verst. Hence the origin' of the "Zones" tariff, an ar. rangement which may be considered experimental rather than final, The Chinese postal service is assuming extraordinary dimensions, and is yet only in its infancy. When full-grown it wil, be gigantic. It is primarily intended not for foreigners, but for Chinese; for domestic, not for international convenlence. The foreign and international side, however, as we all know, is carefully attended to. "'There are few, if any, post-offices where inquiries are so readily answered and complaints attended to, while the ordinary service is, to use colloquial expression, fully up to date, Much of its work lies with the arrivals and departures of foreign mails, and not, 0 far, with foreign mails entering a port, passing through, and going on elsewhere, There are, however, offices in every province, and mail matter is sent in every direction, as may be seen from the oxcelout postal map drawn up by Mr. Pity, the Postal Secretary. To-day there are over thousand offices, largo and small, at work. The requisite organi and method for this rapidly growing business sre first evolved naturally and then superimposed formally. The experiment of establishing a national Post Office for China has, we have reason to know, occupied Sir Robert Hart over since 1861, and after taking forty years, 80 to spank, in crossing the wilderness, the venerable Inspector-General has at last brought his charge "safely into the Promised Land, at a time, it is to: bo feared, when Sir Robert himself may not much longer remain with us to soo it flourish.
The Chinese Post Office according to the statistics last year handled 21,600,000 postal articles, received and dispatched 487,000 parcels, at a cost, for the work, of Tls. 665,000, while it yielded as ro-venue Tls. 320,000. At the close of the year the Inspector-Gonoral laid the matter before the Government, who cannot fail to have recognised how onorgotically and successfully postal extension had boon pushed along.trunk Tinos in every province, and how promising the revenue of: this new int tution had become. It has become so immense that the Customs could no longer keep it up unless the Government sanctioned a grant in aid. Sir Robert Hart accordingly asked for Tls. 720,000 as an annual grant to the Customs for the support of the Postal Department. The Government, a8 we are now able to announce, has just sanctioned the full and tofamount asked for.
The Imperial Post Office is now not only established by Imperial Edict, and extending in every province, but it has its own means of support. Its firmness and stability are now assured. It is a noble tree, firmly rooted, which will live and grow to th honour of him who planted it in the of Chins. It is a work upon which Sir Robert Hart can look back with antis-faction and pride. It is in itself a life's work, and it must be a source of intense ratification to its founder that the task is completed before he goes away.
In contemplating the growth and achievements of the Post Office we have been diverted for the moment from the comparatively small point at issue, from which we started. The possibility that Sir Robert's retirement from Ohina, after
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.