Mar, 8.
'Tue Administration of the! coal Post Office has circularize' box-holders with a request that "to enable this office to check the work of the staff sorting! box-holders' mails and thereby} to increase the efficiency of the service... a record be kept, say for one week, of all mistakes in sorting, and that the completed record be sent to the Postal Commissioner with such general comments or snggestions as past experience may prompt." This further evi dence of the desire of our postal] officials to increase the efficiency thio service under their direction is highly commendable, and there is little doubt that the subscribers to the boxes, or the majority of them, will co-opera ate to the end desired. A matter that is much more important than the sorting of the mail matter when it reachies Shanghai, however, is the question getting it here at all. For many months the arrivals of nails, from both Europe avd Hongkong, have been annoyingly irregular and have caused no} little inconvenience. Woe will] take the last week or s0, in repo, the Hlonetong rans to shanghai, a8 an example. Wel will deal with newspapers, Which always are posted prompt: ly at Hongkong, sind usually rrive here from thres to five days and occasionally two, after publication. On the of Mare) 1, there was a local livery' (at the boxes) of the} Hongkong morning papers February 26 and 97 So far} og we can trace, the next delivery: of Hongkong papers was on the Into afternoon of March 6, whan those of March 1 were received. At just before noon yesterday those of February 25 and 29 were available. viously there is—something wrong in regard to this. There was No delivery between March Land March 6 and yet on every! day in tht period boats arrive: at Shanghai from Hongkong. There was the Nanchang on the 2nd, the London Maru on the 8rd, the City of Cairo on_ the Ath, and the Tingsang, the Ben-glee and the Derfitingter on the 5th, to mention some; and it appears strange that with all these, and other boats, coming from Hongkong, no steps should have been taken to send mail on some of them, ani so avoid) th a hiatus of practically five days. This, of course, is a matter more affecting the postal -authorities at Hongkong than our own local officials; but it seems that il] strong representations were made from this end the Hong-ong postal people might con éeivably do something in regard} to the Shanglini mail. As 'o the mails from Europe, we ab least congratulate ourselves that matters carnot get much worse; no. mails now ever appears to be "expected": people apparently just accept them with! thankfulness whenever ulimately: they strive.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.