THE HAWKE’S BAY TIMES. NAPIER, THURSDAY, JAN. 9, 1862.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume II, Issue 28, 9 January 1862, Page 2

THE HAWKE’S BAY TIMES. NAPIER, THURSDAY, JAN. 9, 1862.

Several months Lave passed away since first we had reason to believe that it was the intention of the Imperial Government to extend the advantages of the Post Office Order system, by means of which sums of money are transmitted in a manner similar to ordinary correspondence through the existing Postal machinery; but it is only recently that we have understood that definite steps have been taken towards this end.

The astonishing success of the whole system, which has been in successful operation in the Mother Country for many years past, must be well-known to a great proportion o* our readers, who will be able to remember that it speedily became the popular and almost exclusive means adopted by the general public for the transmission of cash to other parts of the country, and that a very few years saw this department of the Postal Service htecome equal to one of the greatest banking establishments of the United Kingdom. It has often been a matter of surprise to us that its benefits and advantages have not long ago been extended to the Colonies, in fact it appears to us that it is capable of as great extension as the Postal System itself, and consequently could be made available between the several Colonies, by means of the inter-colonial service, and also to the various settlements in our own more immediate vicinity, by the inland service, as well as between the colonies and the Mother Country, although we believe that the latter is the only branch of the scheme it is intended to bring into operation at the present time. The advantages which the Post Office Order system offers to the general body of the public, over the more ordinary methods of transmitting money, are so obvious as scarcely to render it necessary for us to do more than merely allude to them. A small per centage on the amount forwarded, a uniform charge accord-

ing to a well devised scale, sufficient to meet working expenses, would supersede the constantly varying premiums charged by the banking companies for exchange, and the payment of the sum at sight of the order, will often be a boon to the recipient, now only obtainable at high rates of premium. These, and other reasons which will readily occur to our readers, will have the effect of causing the system to be understood and adopted by the general public, many of whom, from various reasons, do not at present avail themselves of the machinery provided by the banking companies, or only within a very limited extent. As we have already intimated, the preliminary steps are now in progress towards bringing this matter to a successful issue between the Mother Country and the colonies, and we have great pleasure in being able to inform our readers of the fact, although the period which will yet necessarily elapse before the arrangements for the complete working of the plan can be made so as to enable the Post Office authorities to bring it into active operation by the issue and payment of orders, cannot at present be stated. We hope it may not be long, and that it will be so successful as to warrant the extension of the system to the full extent of the inter-colonial and Inland Postal Services, Closely connected with the above is the newly contemplated arrangements of his Excellency’s Government for enforcing the prepayment of all letters transmitted through the Post Office, by stamps, which has also proved to be a very successful plan since its adoption by the English Postal Authorities, in giving facility to the internal economy of the establishment and saving a large amount of time and labor on the part of the subordinates. It must be understood that the plan involves two distinct features—the prepayment of all letters posted, and the prepayment by means of stamps. Up to the present time both the above points have been left very much to the option of the sender of a letter, as far as regards the Inland service ; and the second (that is whether money or stamps should be used) has been entirely left to his discretion, and this has involved a great deal of labor, and a large expenditure of time in book-keeping, &c., which it is felt, might be saved with advantage to the service, and which will be no doubt saved under the proposed new regulations, without imposing any appreciable inconvenience on the Public. We understand that these new regulations will be brought into operation on the the Ist of April next, after which date any letter not bearing a stamp, will be opened by the Post Office authorities and returned to the writer.