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9 
 
 CIHM/ICMH 
 
 Microfiche 
 
 Series. 
 
 CIHM/ICMH 
 Collection de 
 microfiches. 
 
 b^ 
 
 iV 
 
 Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions Institut canadien de microreproductions historiques 
 
 1980 
 
Technical Notes / Notes techniques 
 
 The Institute has attempted to obtain the best 
 original copy available for filming. Physical 
 features of this copy which may alter any of the 
 images in the reproduction are checked below. 
 
 n 
 
 Coloured covers/ 
 Couvertures de couleur 
 
 Coloured maps/ 
 
 Cartes gdographiques en couleur 
 
 L'Institut a microfilm^ le meilleur exemplaire 
 qu'il lui a 6t6 possible de se procurer. Certains 
 ddfauts susceptibles de nuire d la qualiti§ de la 
 reproduction sont notds ci-dessous. 
 
 D 
 D 
 
 Coloured pages/ 
 Pages de couleur 
 
 Coloured plates/ 
 Planches en couleur 
 
 D 
 
 D 
 
 Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/ 
 Pages d^color^es, tachetdes ou piqudes 
 
 Tight binding (may cause shadows or 
 distortion along interior margin)/ 
 Reliure serrd (peut causer de I'ombre ou 
 de la distortion le long de la marge 
 int^rieure) 
 
 D 
 
 D 
 
 Show through/ 
 Transparence 
 
 Pages damaged/ 
 Pages endommagdes 
 
 ii 
 u 
 b 
 f 
 
 D 
 
 Additional comments/ 
 Commentaires suppi^mentaires 
 
 Bibliographic Notes / Notes bibliographiques 
 
 D 
 
 D 
 
 □ 
 
 Only edition available/ 
 Seule Edition disponible 
 
 Bound with other material/ 
 Relid avec d'autres documents 
 
 Cover title missing/ 
 
 Le titre de couverture manque 
 
 Plates missing/ 
 
 Des planches manquent 
 
 D 
 D 
 
 □ 
 
 Pagination incorrect/ 
 Erreurs de pagination 
 
 Pages missing/ 
 
 Des pages manquent 
 
 Maps missing/ 
 
 Des cartes gdographiques manquent 
 
 D 
 
 Additional comments/ 
 Commentaires suppl^mentaires 
 
re 
 
 ains 
 e la 
 
 The images appearing here are the best quality 
 possible considering the condition and legibility 
 of the original copy and in keeping with the 
 filming contract specifications. 
 
 The last recorded frame on each microfiche shall 
 contain the symbol —►(meaning CONTINUED"), 
 or the symbol V (meaning "END"), whichever 
 applies. 
 
 Les images suivantes ont 6t6 reproduites avec le 
 plus grand soin, compte tenu de la condition et 
 de la nettetd de I'exemplaire film6, et en 
 conformity avec les conditions du oontrat de 
 filmage. 
 
 Un des symboles suivants apparattra sur la der- 
 nidre image de cheque microfiche, selon le cas: 
 le symbole — ► signifie "A SUIVRE", le symbole 
 V signifie "FIN". 
 
 The original copy was borrowed from, and 
 filmed with, the kind consent of the following 
 institution: 
 
 Library of the Public 
 Archives of Canada 
 
 Maps or plates too large to be entirely included 
 in one exposure are filmed beginning in the 
 upper left hand corner, left to right and top to 
 bottom, as many frames as required. The 
 following diagrams illustrate the method: 
 
 L'exemplaire filmd fut reproduit grSce d la 
 g6n6rosit6 de l'6tablissement prdteur 
 suivant : 
 
 La bibliothdque des Archives 
 
 publiques du Canada 
 
 Les cartes ou les planches trop grandes pour §tre 
 reproduites en un seul cliche sont filmdes i 
 partir de Tangle supdrieure gauche, de gauche d 
 droite et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre 
 d'images n^cessaire. Le diagramme suivant 
 illustre la mdthode : 
 
 1 2 3 
 
 1 2 3 
 
 4 5 6 
 
P( 
 
POSTAL REFORM 
 
 BY 
 
 A. T. DRUMMOND. 
 
 RKPRINTED FllOM 
 
 THE " QUEEN'S QUARTERLY ", OCT., 1893. 
 
 Pr^ktep bv John Lovel. & Sok^3 anp 25 St. Nicholas Stheet. 
 
 1893. 
 
POSTAL REFORM. 
 
 )t 
 
 The most strikitiij; fact which the report of the Postmaster-General 
 for 1892 reveals is the immense deficit in the Post Office accounts. 
 The net revenue for that year was $2,652,000, but it required an 
 additional sum of over one and a h i tlf million dollars to meet the. 
 
 expenditure. The net revenue did not, in fact, amount tO'lno'Liiirdfl ■■ 
 of the expenditure of the Department. The Post Office has for years 
 been in a chronic state of what miglit be termed departmental insol- 
 vency. Can this condition of affairs be remedied ? In the Depart- 
 ment of Railways it has been this year demonstrated that by a bold 
 stroke in nianagonient huge annual deiicits can be nearly wiped out, 
 without, we will hope, any detriment '.o the effective working of the 
 Government railways or to the condition of their permanent way. is 
 there not room for an equally bold stroke on the part of the Post 
 Office management ? This department of tlie Government service 
 ought, on business principles, to be made tc show a surplus. 
 
 In investigating the causes which have given rise to the deficiency, 
 we are at the outset met with two facts — the one that huge masses of 
 mail matter, including newspapers and periodicals, are carried either 
 free or at a merely nominal rate, although involving an outlay to a 
 very large sum to railways and other carriers employed by the Post 
 Office; 'aird the other, that the money order branch is practically 
 unremunerative. 
 
 Whilst the public interest is served by cheap postage, it is only 
 apparently served if the Department is thereby carried on at a loss, 
 since this loss has to be made up by additional tariff or other imposts. 
 In the case of newspapers and periodicals, there is no reason why they 
 should be carried free. There is a service performed to both the 
 publi>her and tlie public, and that service should be paid lor. If the 
 Government sees the propriety of a duty on books where no service by 
 it is involved, surely it is entitled to a return for the carriage of the 
 newspapers, especially when that carriage involves a very heavy actual 
 outlay by it. In the one ease, there is a tax on education ; in the 
 other, a business return for a service performed. The old rate of one 
 
 * .• ••- ■■■ .■■»,-*.- 
 
cent on each newspaper would be unreasonable, especially in the case 
 of the large evening dailies published at one cent, but some fee which 
 would cover tiie (jlovernuienl's outlay for transmission should be 
 adopted. This fee would, for the convenience of collection, require to 
 be prepaid, but it would, in most cases, reappear in whole or parf. in 
 the price of the paper or periodical. Tlius it is not tlie publisher who 
 would bave in tliis matter to be consulted so much as tlic public, and 
 the public should not object so long as the aim is to reimburse to tlie 
 Government the cost of receiving, transmission and delivery. 
 
 For twenty-one years previous to 1889, the date of the last complete 
 returns, the average profit on each money order was only four-tifths of 
 a cent, and, in fact, since 1882, this branch of tiie service has been 
 carried on at a loss. In seeking for a reason for this, we find that 
 whilst in 1872 the average amount of each money order was $38, it 
 had fallen in 1882 to ^22, and in 1892 to $14. The obvious conclu- 
 sion is that a vast niass of the money orders now purchased bring in a 
 revenue of only two or five cents each, and that the average revenue is 
 considerably under ten cents. For the labor involved in connection 
 with the making out, transmission and ultimate payment of these 
 orders, this is clearly too small a charge. Here then is a pressing 
 reason for either raising the fee on the sums under twenty dollars, or 
 the adoption of the postal order, wliicli, at a minimum trouble to all 
 parties, would largely replace tlie smaller money orders, or the expan- 
 sion of the registration system by including insurance. 
 
 Changes in our present system which might reduce the revenue 
 would be open to objection, but those which would afford furtiicr 
 facilities to the public, and be a consideiable source of revenue without 
 correspondingly increasing the expenditure, stiould meet with favor. 
 And if some of these changes have passed the domain of experiment, 
 and have been successfully adopted under the Imperial or the United 
 States systems, there should be the more readiness to introduce them 
 here. It is under these considerations that some new features in our 
 system suggest themselves, and will be now referred to. 
 
 Postal orders form a ready means of transmitting very small sums 
 by post, and are in large use both in Great Britain and the United 
 States. They are in form like bank bills, are in convenient amounts 
 from 25c. to $5, and cost from one cent upwards, according to amount. 
 A blank is left for the payee's name, but in other respects, they are 
 
ready for use at a'ly moment, and are paid out like bank bills, thus not 
 entailing the loss of time to postal clerks, which the present money 
 order does in drawing out and transmitting it, and often in paying it — 
 a loss of time the purchaser and receiver would oqually save. The 
 advantage to the Post Office would, however, not stop here, for a 
 relatively more remunerative scale of charges would have to be 
 arranged for the {)0'til orders than is adopted und<r the present money 
 order system for small sums. When it is remombered that fifteen 
 cents, and in n)any cases twenty-five cents, is the minimum cliargc 
 made by the banks on country cheques, however small, the Department 
 cannot apprehend difficulty in demanding a fair advance on its present 
 scale for small sums. These postal orders should be sold to postmasters 
 just as postage stamps are ; and to prevent any possibility of alteration, 
 the limit of any order might be made five dollars, and the amount of 
 eacli order should appear more than once on its face. 
 
 It will be generally admitted that the Post Offiee might be made a 
 more useful medium than it now is ibr tl;e transmission of parcels, not 
 only to the convenience of the pulilic, but to the profit of the D(^part- 
 mcnt itself. The present charge on closed parcels is so high as to 
 suggest the idea of an intentionally prohibitory rate. In Great Britain , 
 both the Post Office and the railways offijr exceedingly reasimable rates, 
 with the result that apart from the general public, the great retail 
 houses of London, Liverpool, Belfast and other centres, and their 
 customers all over the United Kingdom, make the most extensive use 
 of the parcel system. The railways have a regular tariff graduated 
 according to weight and distance, but the Post Office charges a general 
 rate for all points within the Kingdom of six cents for the first pound 
 weight and three cents for each pound thereafter. To illustrate the 
 expense under our parcel system as compared with other-;, a 3 lb. 
 parcel sent 200 miles would cost by Et)glish parcel po>t 12 cents, by 
 English railway delivery, 14 cents, and by Canadian Express Company, 
 25 cents, and in each case in the citi' -< and towns, would be delivered 
 at the receiver's door, whilst by Canadian parcel post it would cost 72 
 cents, and the receiver probably be asked, after a day's de ay, to call 
 for it at the post office. In at least the larger Canadian cities, where 
 the great bulk of the parcel business would be done, delivery by post 
 office van might be readily undertaken. 
 
 An improvement has just been made in the size of the postal cards, 
 
6 
 
 but it is worthy of consideration whether, within certain limits of size, 
 any card with the address confined to one side, and with a one cent 
 stamp upon it, siiould not be permitted to pass throu<j;h the post. 
 
 The recent further extension in Great Britain of the system of 
 compensation for loss of registered letters reopens the subject here. 
 Our C^madian system is very anomalous. The fee is higher than in 
 Great Britain, but the only security tlie sender has, besides his receipt, 
 is that if the letter arrives at its destination, a receipt will be taken 
 from the party to whom it is delivered. The Government assumes no 
 liability whatever in ease of loss, but is presumed to make some effort 
 to trace missing letters. The increase in tlie lee, three ye:irs ago, from 
 two cents to five cents, has considerably decreased the number of 
 registered letters, showing that a large section of the public does not 
 consider that the protection afforded warrants the larger fee now 
 charged. In 1890, the limit of compensation given by the British 
 Post Office for loss or damage to inland registered packets was $50; in 
 1892, this was increased to $125, and in 1893 to 3250 — the mnximum 
 liability on each letter being fixed by the fee paid in iiccordance with a 
 regular scale, commencing with the ordinary regi>tr:ition lee, wliicli 
 itself covers an insurance up to $25. Every registered letter there is 
 thus insured to at least $25. 
 
 Now, what would our Canadian Government gain, and what risk of 
 loss might it incur under the insurance system ? A summary of the 
 Post Office business for the past four years gives the following results: 
 
 Total registered letters 13,507,000 
 
 Affording, if at 5 cents each, a revenue of $675,350 
 
 The missing registered letters were 694 
 
 Of which there were not recovered 401 
 
 Which were alleged to contain $23,366 
 
 But this total loss included two reinitt:inees from banks, amounting to 
 $11,000 of their own bills which were burned in a postil car, and were 
 therefore not an actual loss to the banks concerneJ. These results 
 make clear two facts — the large revenue obtainable from registration, 
 and the comparatively small risk of loss the Government would sustain 
 by adopting the system of compensation. Another fact is, however, 
 equally clear. The revenue would be largely increased by the adoption 
 of the system, as well as a great boon cmferred on the public. If the 
 ordinary registration fee insured as in Britain every letter up to $25, 
 
n 
 
 le 
 
 not miiny letters containi ig money or valuables would be sent, as tbcy 
 often now are, unrei^iHtercd ; and if, by payinj; a larj^cr fee, increased 
 coniponsation, according to a fixed scale, would be obtained in c;ise of 
 loss, a very large number of the letters now registered would bear an 
 increased fee. I" Great Britain the maximum fee is 22 cents, covering 
 an insurance of S250, 
 
 It has been said that the system will entail much additional labor 
 in the Post Office. This is not the case. The system carries 
 simplicity with it. The ordinary books for entering registered letters 
 would merely have one more column showing the fee paid, and there- 
 fore the limit of compensation, and the present registration neeipt 
 would be stamped with the fee as well. The production of this receipt 
 by the sender of the letter, its comparison with the entry book, and a 
 short official form of claim filled up and properly sworn to by the 
 sender, should be sufficient proof in the event of loss. 
 
 The marvellous promptitude and the frequency of collection and 
 delivery in the great cities of Britain are hardly to be expected in our 
 less populous centres, and yet our service might be much improved in 
 these respects. The postmen should be carried by electric car or post 
 office van to and from their starting points, and earlier delivery thus 
 secured; the people should be encouraged to provide letter slits in thcii 
 doors in order that the postman may not be delayeu at so very many 
 houses waiting the an.swer to his knock ; and, as letter-lioxcs are often 
 found to be at inconvenient distances away, all letter carriers sbould be 
 instructed, as they are in Ottawa, to receive letters, when asked, and 
 to deliver them promptly at the post office on their return from each 
 round. Further, as correspondence goes chiefly by the night mails, 
 and as in our country of long distances, posting letters in time for 
 these mails generally saves twenty-four hours, the letter-boxes should 
 not only indicate the hours of collection but that collection which 
 ensures transmission by the night mails. 
 
 The popular impression is that the Post Office exists for the con- 
 venience and advantage of the public, and, within the limits of a 
 balance sheet showing an equality of revenue and expenditure, this 
 impression should be correct. There can be no apology needed for 
 asking the Department to consider improvements which the ever- 
 growing wants of the public seem to demand. 
 
 i 
 
 A. T. Drummond.