Continuation of account of post office in Maritime provinces--
Departmental inquiry into conditions--Agitation for reduced
postage.
The information elicited from Howe by the general post office in London,
and the house of assembly of Nova Scotia, in the course of the inquiry
as to the financial position of the post office in that province,
disclosed matter for considerable surprise to both of them.
The general post office learned for the first time that for some years
the provincial post office was carried on partly with the assistance of
the legislature. The assembly on its side was equally unaware of the
fact that, while they were making annual grants in aid of the provincial
establishment, a very considerable sum was being remitted each year by
the deputy postmaster general to the British treasury as surplus postal
revenue.
This anomalous state of affairs was corrected, and a more satisfactory
footing was established as the result of the mission of the Nova Scotia
delegates to England in 1839. But one is inclined to wonder how this
condition of ignorance could continue with Howe, a perfectly honest man,
in constant communication with his official superiors in England on the
one hand, and with the legislature on the other.
It would seem to have arisen from the fact that the post office in Nova
Scotia was a much more intimate institution than the post office was in
Canada. Circumstances, as has been seen, maintained a gulf between the
post office in Canada and the provincial legislatures. The antagonism of
the legislatures in the two Canadas towards the post office, arising
from their belief in the illegality of its foundation, and the steady
struggle on their part to bring the institution within the sphere of
their authority, operated to prevent the establishment of intimate
relations between the legislatures and the deputy postmasters general.
All these separative factors were absent in Nova Scotia. The Howes,
father and son, had administered the post office for nearly forty years.
They were constantly occupied with the public life of the province. They
published the principal newspapers, and Joseph Howe, son of the one,
and brother of the other, was one of the leaders in the legislature. The
younger Howe was also a commissioner for the summary trial of actions,
and for the poor, both of which appointments he held without salary.
The interests of the Howes were as much engaged to the affairs of the
province, as to those of the general post office, and this fact was
recognized by the legislature. When, therefore, there was a question of
extending the postal lines into new districts, Howe was fully
sympathetic, and it was felt, by the assembly, when he informed them
that they must be prepared to make up any deficiencies in the cost of
the new services, that he spoke as one of themselves, but with
authority, and there was no more question.
As a consequence, new routes sprang up gradually in different parts of
the province, under the simple arrangement that the postage collected on
the route would be applied as far as it would go to meet the expenses of
the postmasters and mail couriers, and that the legislature would make
up what was lacking.
Thus, on the western line, from Halifax to Yarmouth, and around the
shore to Lunenburg, the revenue collected was in 1839 only L378, whereas
the expenditure was rather more than L900 beyond this sum. On the
eastern line, the shortage to be made up by the legislature was over
L450. The northern line, that is, through Londonderry, Amherst, Wallace,
Dorchester and Parrsboro nearly paid its expenses. The province had to
contribute no more than L60, to cover the deficiency.[269]
All that the general post office had been informed regarding these
routes was that the revenues from them were being held to pay expenses.
They had no idea that there were heavy deficiencies, which the
legislatures provided for by annual votes, arranged between Howe and the
post office committee of the legislative assembly. Howe held, when
brought to account for his remissness, that as these routes were under
the authority of the province, and not of the postmaster general, there
was no object in embodying them in his accounts.
The general post office did not know of the existence of the post
offices of Yarmouth, Shelburne, Liverpool and Lunenburg on the west and
south coasts; Antigonishe, Wallace and Parrsboro on the north; and
Arichat and Sydney in Cape Breton, all of which had been in operation
for a number of years.
The only route in the province that yielded a revenue sufficient to meet
expenses was the grand route leading to Canada, with its branch to
Pictou. As the grand route was employed for the conveyance through the
provinces of the valuable mails exchanged between Canada and Great
Britain, it was naturally very remunerative.
The agreement with the treasury, satisfactory as it was in appearance,
had in it the seeds of misunderstanding. The treasury announced its
willingness that, so long as the revenue from the internal post office
was sufficient to meet the expense of the internal communications, no
demand for this object should be made upon the provincial funds. The
terms of the minute seem to lack nothing in clearness, unless some of
the words employed were held to have a significance other than that
usually accepted. That is what was the case in this minute.
The treasury, in selecting the words it used, meant nothing more or less
than that, if the revenue collected on letters passing within the
territories of Nova Scotia were sufficient to cover the expense of
maintaining the post offices and mail couriers within the province, the
provincial authorities would be exempt from all liability.
The legislature accepted this view of the case on all but one point.
They maintained that Halifax post office existed mainly for imperial
purposes,[270] in that its chief function was to provide for the
interchange of the mails between Canada and Great Britain, and that its
value as a provincial institution was fully offset by the advantages
extended by Nova Scotia to Great Britain and Canada in providing for the
transmission of their mails across its territory.
Holding this view, the assembly examined the accounts laid before them
by Howe, and satisfied themselves that, omitting the expenses of Halifax
post office from consideration, the internal postage practically covered
the expenses of the internal service. They therefore resolved that no
vote would be required during that session. They pledged themselves,
however, in case the revenue of that year should prove inadequate, to
provide for the deficiency, so that the services should not be
interrupted or diminished.
In the following year, 1840, there was an unquestionable surplus of
revenue over expenditure; consequently no demand was made upon the
legislature. In 1841, the friction, which was certain to develop when
Howe's loose methods were subjected to any strain, began to make itself
felt.
In April of that year, Howe advised the lieutenant governor, Lord
Falkland, that the funds available for the payment of the post office
expenditure were deficient to the extent of L546.[271] He, at the same
time, submitted to the lieutenant governor his correspondence with the
general post office in London, from which it appeared that the general
post office, fearing that the omission of the legislature to make any
provision for the service would lead to a deficiency, intimated that it
might be necessary to make some curtailments, and asked whether some of
the less productive routes might not be discontinued.
Howe, following his usual practice, had consulted with several members
of the legislature, and being satisfied that the legislature would make
up any shortage that arose, concluded that there would be no necessity
of abandoning any of the lines.
It was only when the legislature was prorogued without making provision
for a possible shortage, that Howe submitted the question to the
governor. Falkland was rather embarrassed by the responsibility thus
unnecessarily thrust upon him. But as he was of opinion that it would
cause much inconvenience to stop any of the mail routes, he directed the
amount of the shortage to be paid. The lieutenant governor, however, in
relating the circumstances to the colonial secretary, took occasion to
complain of Howe's methods.
The communications respecting the post office passed him by entirely,
unless some trouble arose which made an appeal necessary. In the present
case, if he had been made acquainted with the circumstances in time, he
would have laid them before the legislature, and left them to decide
whether any of the services were to be dropped, or the deficit made up.
As a result, Howe was admonished that his irregular practice must cease,
and that when recourse to the legislature was necessary, he should
approach them through the lieutenant governor alone.
In 1842, the situation became more acute. The assembly had before them
the accounts of 1841, in which figured the additional expenses due to
the ambitious transatlantic steamship scheme. At the best, the revenues
from the inland services were no more than sufficient to meet its
expenses, and the increase in the cost of the conveyance between Halifax
and Pictou from L285 a year to L1937 (L1550 sterling), and the
additional expense in the Halifax post office from L625 a year to L1694
due to a large augmentation in the staff, involved the legislature in a
situation, to which they were disinclined to submit.
The trouble was precipitated by a letter from Howe to the lieutenant
governor, informing him that, as the sum of L1143 had been advanced by
him from the packet postage, which belonged to the British treasury, and
as the legislature had appropriated only L550 to meet this advance,
there was still the sum of L593 due to His Majesty.
The assembly to whom Howe's communication was referred, took the
opportunity of reviewing the whole situation. It was beyond doubt that,
in 1839, the internal postal service was self-supporting. This condition
was disturbed to the detriment of the financial position of the post
office by burdening it with the total expense of the Pictou service,
which was maintained principally for the benefit of New Brunswick and
Canada, and of the Halifax post office, which since the establishment of
the ocean steam service for all the colonies was in reality much more an
imperial than a provincial institution.
As, in justice, the inland colonies were chargeable with the major part
of the outlay for the Pictou service, and the maintenance of Halifax
post office should properly be defrayed from the packet postage, the
legislature declined to meet the demand made upon it by the post office.
The lieutenant governor was in full sympathy with the legislature, and
after fortifying himself with the opinions of his law officers as to the
legal aspects of the case, appealed to the governor general to induce
the Canadian government to take on themselves the proper share of the
charge.
The Canadian government for the reasons given could not see the
propriety of their taking on themselves any part of the expense of
conveying mails to their outport at Quebec, and the British government
were powerless to bring pressure on the Canadians, since the treasury
was in receipt annually of large remittances from Stayner as surplus
post office revenues, which the British government, by their act of
1834, admitted to belong to the colonies, and which only awaited
colonial legislation to be handed over to the several legislatures.
The treasury was willing also as a measure of grace to allow the
colonial legislatures to retain the part of the packet postage collected
in the colonies, if they would only adopt the scheme involved in the act
of 1834. But it was not prepared to admit that any part of the packet
was, as a matter of right, chargeable with the maintenance of the post
office at Halifax or of the Pictou coach service, and as it was becoming
plain that the scheme of making Halifax the distributing centre for the
Canadas, was not proving the success they hoped for, they determined to
inquire as to the feasibility of having a port in the United States
utilized in the exchange between Canada and Great Britain.
To that end, an official of the British post office, W. J. Page, was
sent to Nova Scotia to investigate this subject, and at the same time to
make a thorough inquiry into the condition of the Nova Scotia post
office, which had been animadverted upon rather severely by the royal
commission, in its report of 1841.
By means of Page's reports and of the report of this commission, we are
enabled to give a clear account of the Nova Scotia post office in the
beginning of the forties. There were eighteen post offices in the
province at this period, and fifty-one sub-offices. The mails were
carried on the route from Halifax to Pictou and St. John three times a
week in summer and twice a week in winter.
From Pictou the mails were carried to Antigonishe twice a week, and with
the same frequency from Halifax to Annapolis. Mails were carried in all
directions throughout the province, but, with the exceptions mentioned,
only once a week.
The management of this considerable system was in the hands of the
deputy postmaster general and his assistant. It was impossible with the
work demanding their attention in Halifax, and the deficiency of
facilities for travel, that these two could give any attention to the
offices which were not under their immediate eye, and consequently all
attempts to exercise control over the operation of the system came by
degrees to be abandoned. When postmasters were appointed, all the
instructions they received were a few short directions from the deputy
postmaster general, or from an outgoing predecessor, whose knowledge was
a combination made up of the official instructions and the
interpretations placed upon them, when occasion arose that required some
action or decision on his part.
The way offices--those peculiar products of the Maritime
provinces--excited the ridicule of English and Canadian trained
officials. Page, in a letter to the secretary of the general post
office, expressed his despair of comprehending the varieties of origin
or practice of these offices. Not one in ten of the keepers of these
offices were appointed by Howe; nor did he or any one in his office know
the names of many of them, though Howe considered the offices to have
been sanctioned by him.
What happened was like this: a postmaster would write to Howe telling
him that there ought to be a house for leaving letters at, in such or
such a village or settlement. If any person were mentioned as willing to
take charge of the letters, Howe generally agreed to his being
appointed, and considered the matter settled. If no particular person
was mentioned, Howe agreed to the suggestion that there should be a
receiving house in the place indicated, and left the selection to the
postmaster.
The whole affair was considered as a private matter between postmaster
and way office keeper; no letter bills or forms of any description were
ever supplied to the way office keepers, and so long as they paid to the
postmasters the amount of postage due on letters sent to them for
delivery, the very existence of these offices was ignored.
These way offices were known locally as twopenny offices, that is, the
keepers charged twopence on every letter passing through their hands. An
instance will explain the mode of operation in these offices. A
gentleman living in Port Hood, on the west coast of Cape Breton, stated
that he had sent a double letter weighing less than half an ounce a
distance of fifty miles; and as it had to pass through five way offices,
the charge was one shilling and eightpence (thirty-three cents). He
received letters from England, which cost one shilling and fourpence
(twenty-seven cents) from England to the Straits of Canso; but the
conveyance from that point to his home, a distance of twenty-six miles,
cost one shilling and fourpence more.
The anomalies were due partly to the mixed character of the control of
the system in the province, and partly to the inability of the deputy
postmaster general, owing to his lack of efficient help, to supervise
the system. Howe was under the authority both of the postmaster general
in England, and of the provincial government, which provided for the
maintenance of a number of offices, which would not have been sanctioned
by the postmaster general on account of the expense.
Illegal conveyance of letters was the rule in this province, as well as
in all the others. The great proportion of the correspondence between
the towns and villages on the long coast was carried by trading vessels.
On some of the main routes, notably from Halifax to Pictou and to
Annapolis, there were fast four-horse coaches. They travelled eight
miles an hour in summer and five in winter. They were employed to carry
the mails, but it never happened that the mail bags contained as many
letters as the pockets of the passengers.
In Cape Breton there was not a single carriage road in the island. Most
of the roads were mere bridle paths, and in many parts there were no
roads of any kind. It took five days to carry the mail bag from Halifax
to Sydney during the summer, and from eleven to eighteen in the winter.
The deputy postmaster general had a salary of L400 a year, which was
supplemented by the amounts collected as newspaper postage. In 1841, the
amount of this perquisite was L330 a year. It was a cause of complaint
on the part of rival publishers that the _Nova Scotian_, the leading
newspaper in the province, paid no postage. As the circulation of this
paper--1400 copies a week--was more than double that of any other paper
in the province, the grievance was a real one.
In explanation of the exemption, Howe stated that for ten years before
he purchased the _Nova Scotian_, the proprietor, Joseph Howe, had
assisted him in the management of the office for eleven months while the
deputy postmaster general was in England, taking full management of the
provincial system. For these services Joseph Howe had asked no
compensation, and the deputy postmaster general had therefore taken no
remuneration for mailing the newspapers.[272]
There were only two towns in the province where letters were delivered
by carriers--Halifax and Yarmouth. In Halifax, the city was divided
between two carriers, whose pay consisted of the fees they were entitled
to take from the recipients of the letters they delivered, at a penny a
letter. They attempted to charge the same sum for the delivery of each
newspaper, but many persons would not pay the fee. The carriers received
L2 10_s._ and L2 a week respectively. Yarmouth also had two carriers,
whose penny fees gave them each about L12 10_s._ a year.
The relations between the deputy postmaster general and the provincial
government were the subject of much critical comment on the part of
Page. The fact that the government contributed to the maintenance of the
less remunerative routes and post offices gave the executive and the
assembly a colour of title to interfere in the management of the post
office, which was exercised, in Page's opinion, beyond all due bounds.
The governor's secretary was in the habit of giving Howe orders, and if
Howe showed any hesitation in complying with them, he became offensively
peremptory. Investigations into complaints against postmasters were
taken into the hands of a committee of the assembly, in disregard of
Howe's authority. As it appeared to Page, there was a determined effort
to set aside the authority of the postmaster general and to take over
the management of the system by the government. Howe at Page's instance,
took a firm stand and informed the governor that, in case of conflict
between the directions he received from England, and those given by the
governor, it was the directions from St. Martins-le-Grand he was bound
to obey.
The disappointment in the general post office over the failure of the
plan to remove the difficulties with the government of Nova Scotia,
which was largely due to the hopeless complication of the accounts,
changed the attitude of the officials at home towards Howe from one of
good will to one of censure, which reached the point that nearly
determined them to dismiss Howe.
Page pointed out the injustice of such a step. Howe's position was one
in which it was impossible to escape criticism from either the
provincial authorities or his official superiors, whose views were
frequently in sharp antagonism to one another. The part of the
provincial system under Howe as deputy of the postmaster general in
England had its accounting scheme, and the part, which was maintained by
the legislature, had another, separate and distinct.
But the passing of letters between the recognized post offices and those
established by the legislature, gave rise to accounts between the two
systems under Howe's management, which it was practically impossible to
adjust satisfactorily, unless by the adoption of a give-and-take system,
to which neither the general post office nor the legislature showed any
disposition.
Howe's death in January 1843 closed the question as to whether or not
his administration was deserving of censure. It also brought to an end
an era, within which the postal service had expanded from the single
route extending from Halifax to Annapolis and Digby, over which the mail
courier travelled but once a month, to the network of routes whose
ramifications covered every part of the province.
Judged by the only possible test, the administration of the Canadian
service under Heriot, Sutherland and Stayner, the administration of the
two Howes must be pronounced a conspicuous success. The deputies in
Canada were faithful to their superiors in London, but they were so at
the expense of the popularity of the postal service in the provinces.
The Howes managed to extend their service equally with their Canadian
colleagues, and at the same time held the good will of the authorities
in the province. Howe was a man who left no enemies. The governor, in
discussing the postal difficulties of the province with Page, expressed
the utmost good will for Howe himself, the only ground of complaint
against him being an embarrassing intimacy with the members of the
legislature.
Page, who visited Nova Scotia for the purpose of inspecting Howe's
administration, bore testimony, before Howe's death, to his kindly
disposition and to the high respect in which he was held, officially and
in private life. His rectitude in all his relations was never in
question.[273]
Howe's successor was Arthur Woodgate, who had served in the post office
in Jersey. Woodgate administered the post office in Nova Scotia until
the provincial system was absorbed in that of the dominion, when the
confederation of the several provinces took place; until 1851, he was,
as were his predecessors, deputy of the postmaster general in England;
after that date he was postmaster general for the province of Nova
Scotia.
An immediate consequence of the death of Howe was the removal of the
post office in Halifax from the site it had occupied to the Dalhousie
college building. The merchants objected to the continuance of the post
office in its former situation, and in the search of a more convenient
location, it was observed that the ground floor of the college building,
which was occupied as a tavern, offered advantages, which satisfied the
mercantile community.
A lease was effected for the new quarters on the 6th of July, 1844, and
the post office surveyor reported to the secretary that there was at the
disposal of the department, a large and capacious room solely for the
purposes of the inland sorting office; a delivery office, and a large
room for sorting papers, all on the ground floor; while in the second
storey there was ample accommodation for the deputy postmaster general
and his staff.[274]
The question of a reduction in the postage rates engaged the attention
of the legislature every session, after the beneficial results of penny
postage in Great Britain became known. In March 1842, the assembly,
which was at this time under the speakership of Joseph Howe, petitioned
to have the charges taken entirely off newspapers and pamphlets. As
newspapers were almost the only vehicles of information in the province,
and the postal charges were collected entirely from the rural parts,
they were a heavy burden on people who could least bear it.
The postmaster general in reply stated that the proposition to relieve
newspapers altogether from postage could not be considered, but a
reduction in the charge was at that time being considered by the
treasury. Newspapers were increasing so rapidly, at the existing rates,
that it was becoming a question, with the bad state of the roads, as to
how to provide for their transmission. Pamphlets were being charged as
letters in England, and it would be impossible to sanction their free
conveyance in the colonies.
At the same time the assembly requested the lieutenant governor to have
inquiries made as to the feasibility and effect on the revenue of a
uniform rate on letters of fourpence per half ounce within the province.
The deputy postmaster general, to whom the question was referred, was
strongly opposed to the proposition. He was convinced that the increase
in the correspondence would be slight, and that, at the rate mentioned,
the revenue would not be sufficient to pay the cost of any one of the
principal routes in the province.
At the beginning of 1844, the changes, already mentioned, of charging
letters by weight instead of number of enclosures, and of charging
newspapers a halfpenny per sheet, came into operation in the Maritime
provinces. These ameliorations went as far as the officials of the post
office were prepared to recommend, in the existing state of the finances
of the provincial post office. The assembly in Nova Scotia were
persistent in their demand for a reduction in the charges on letters.
They had before them the evidence taken that year in England as to the
effect of penny postage, which had then been in operation three years.
The resolutions the assembly adopted were fully borne out by that
evidence. They resolved that the experience of the parent state had
clearly established that "the introduction of a uniform rate of penny
postage has had a beneficial effect upon the social and commercial
classes of the United Kingdom; has largely increased the number of
letters passing through the post office and prevented the illicit
transmission of letters by private opportunities, and that its effect
has been fully counterbalanced by the other important consequences
resulting from it."[275]
The assembly were therefore satisfied that a fourpenny rate established
under the same regulations as to the use of postage stamps, would
promote the public interests, not add materially to the labour of
management, and ultimately increase the public revenue.
Coupled with this resolution was another to the effect that it would be
desirable to have the provincial post office under the control and
management of the legislature. With this point, the secretary of the
post office dealt at length in a memorandum to the postmaster general.
In his opinion very great advantage resulted from the present system, by
which the control of the post offices in the greater part of the British
colonies was vested in the postmaster general. To abandon it would be
extremely prejudicial, and would have the effect of breaking up the
existing organization (which he was at that time endeavouring to make as
uniform as possible for the whole empire) into various conflicting
systems framed according to the views and feelings of each separate
colony, to the great detriment of the general interests of the empire.
Loud complaints, the postmaster general was reminded by the secretary,
were being made respecting the post offices in Australia, where four
different scales of rates of postage were in operation, resulting in
inconveniences which a recently appointed commission of inquiry were
authorized to obviate. He regarded it as a great advantage that one
uniform system of management and one uniform scale of rates of postage
should prevail in the North American provinces, in Newfoundland and in
the West Indies.
The reply of the postmaster general, which was based on the secretary's
report,[276] received the cordial assent of the legislature. After
reviewing the condition of the colonial post offices in their relation
to the imperial system, the postal committee of the legislature declared
that "the promptness and celerity of intercourse is unrivalled in the
world, and has greatly contributed to the commercial advancement of the
nation. So complicated is the British postal system that, without the
details, it is not possible to obtain a conception of its present
perfection. Nowhere is inviolability of letters more respected than in
England and the United States, and by the constitution of the latter,
adopted in 1789, exclusive power is given to congress to establish post
offices and post roads, thus preventing the difficulties which would
have resulted from leaving this department to the several states."
On this point, then, the committee advised that the house should yield
to the wisdom of the imperial parliament. They returned, however, to the
question of a uniform fourpenny rate for letters, which in their opinion
would facilitate intercourse, and ultimately carry the revenue far
beyond the amount expended for the maintenance of the service. Since
Hill made the use of postage stamps an integral and important part of
his scheme for penny postage, the legislature, in again expressing its
faith in the benefits and feasibility of the uniform fourpenny rate,
directed attention to the merits of postage stamps.
The postmaster general was of opinion that this suggestion should not be
entertained. Any proposal for allowing postage stamps to be used in the
colonies had hitherto been resisted from a fear, amongst other
objections, that forged stamps would find their way into circulation
with little fear of detection. The solicitor of the post office was of
opinion that if forgery were committed in the United Kingdom it could
not be punished in the colonies, whilst on the other hand, if committed
in any of the colonies, it could be visited with no penalty on parties
in the United Kingdom.
With the acquiescence of the Nova Scotia legislature in the view of the
general post office as to the desirability of maintaining a centralized
imperial postal system, and the only outstanding question on which there
was disagreement that of a reduction of postage rates, it will be
expedient to bring forward the narrative of events with respect to the
post office in New Brunswick. The information amassed by the royal
commission makes this an easy task.
What strikes one at first glance is the little progress that had been
made since 1825, when Howe made his official tour through the province.
In 1825, the population stood at 75,000, and in 1841 it had risen to
nearly 160,000. The increase was distributed with considerable evenness
over every part of the province, though the preponderance found its way
to the outlying districts. The numerous settlements thus established
would seem to call for a wide extension of the postal service.
But little was done to meet the requirements. There were nine post
offices in the province in 1825: in 1841, when the population had more
than doubled and was scarcely less than half what it is to-day, there
were no more than twenty-three. Between Fredericton and Woodstock, a
stretch of sixty-two miles of well-settled country, there were no post
offices. The districts lying between Fredericton and Sussexvale,
eighty-eight miles, and between Fredericton and Chatham, one hundred and
fifteen miles, embracing many farming communities, were equally
unprovided for, which is the more inexplicable since couriers travelled
through all these districts to the several points mentioned, and the
expense for post offices would have been more than covered by the
revenues of the offices.
The system of mail routes can be described shortly. From Halifax there
was a main post road, which entered New Brunswick a few miles west of
Amherst, and following in its general lines the course of the
inter-colonial railway passed the bend at Moncton, and continued its way
on to St. John. At a point near the present Norton station, called the
Fingerboard, there was a route to Fredericton.
Over these routes the courier travelled twice each way weekly. Between
Fredericton and Chatham, there was a service of the same frequency.
Chatham was the distributing point for the line of settlements, skirting
the shore, northward to Campbellton, and southward to Dorchester. On the
former route, the trips were made weekly, and on the latter, twice a
week. Mails were carried daily between Fredericton and Woodstock,
Fredericton and St. John and St. John and St. Andrews.
Though, in comparison with the other provinces, the mail conveyance in
New Brunswick was not greatly open to criticism in point of frequency,
the post office was no more popular there than elsewhere. Steamers,
which ran daily between St. John and Fredericton, were employed by the
post office to carry the mails, but though the steamer carried many
every trip, there were few of which the post office got the benefit.
There was a practice of taking letters to the steamer and tossing them
on to the table in the cabin. On the arrival of the steamer in port, a
crowd of messenger boys who were awaiting it picked up the letters from
the table and delivered them through the town at one penny or twopence
each.
The stage coaches were laid under contribution in the same irregular
manner. Every passenger between St. John and Fredericton was expected to
take with him all his friends' letters, which he either delivered to the
persons to whom they were addressed, or deposited in the post office,
the postmaster receiving a penny each for delivering them. A stratagem
sometimes employed was to place letters in the midst of a bundle of
paper and sticks of wood, the freight of the bundle being less than the
postage on the letters it contained.
It was at this time that the legislature of New Brunswick began to
manifest an interest in the management of the post office. In 1841, a
special committee of the assembly reviewed the operation of the system,
and among the questions discussed was the authority.
The committee expressed the opinion that no arrangement could be
satisfactory which did not combine provincial control of the local post
office with a general imperial oversight over the whole system; and they
recommended that a deputy postmaster general should be appointed whose
duty it should be to prescribe mail routes, open post offices, appoint
postmasters, and generally to manage the business of the post office in
the province.[277]
The question of local management the general post office proposed to
solve, not in the manner desired by the assembly, but by separating New
Brunswick from the jurisdiction of the deputy postmaster general at
Halifax, and establishing a department in the province, under a deputy
postmaster general who should be stationed at St. John, and who should
be, as the deputies in the other provinces were, subject to the
postmaster general of England.
Local control was partially effected, as in the other provinces, by
vesting the appointment of all officials, except the deputy postmaster
general and the inspector, in the lieutenant governor. On the 6th of
July, 1843, a separate establishment was set up in New Brunswick with
John Howe, the son of the late deputy postmaster general for Nova
Scotia, in charge as deputy postmaster general.
The arrangement had, at first, only a qualified success. It was
criticized by the legislature as having nearly doubled the expense of
the establishment, and by the post office officials on the ground that
it introduced the local politician into the system.
As illustration of the introduction of local political mechanics, Page
reported to the secretary of the post office that the deputy postmaster
general, having had to dismiss a postmaster for very gross
mismanagement, applied to the lieutenant governor for a nomination for
the vacant office.[278] The lieutenant governor nominated the dismissed
man, and when the nomination was refused, he proposed to appoint the
late postmaster's son. The explanation was that the postmaster was a
leading politician, and his re-nomination had been insisted upon by the
political manager, whom the governor consulted.
The lieutenant governor viewed with no favour the independent powers of
the deputy postmaster general. In the course of a dispute over the
dismissal by the deputy postmaster general of a person whom he had
appointed, the lieutenant governor laid his opinions and desires
energetically before the colonial secretary. He requested that the
general post office should be removed from St. John to Fredericton in
order that the latter might be more effectually under the control of the
lieutenant governor; and that the post office surveyor or inspector
should make his reports to himself and not to the deputy postmaster
general. His views were held to be quite untenable, the postmaster
general pointing out that if carried into effect, they would make the
governor the deputy postmaster general.
St. John and Fredericton were the only towns in New Brunswick in which
correspondence was delivered by letter carrier. In St. John there were
two carriers, who covered the city together, one delivering letters, the
other newspapers. They were paid a penny for each letter or newspaper.
In Fredericton there was only one carrier, who was in the employ of the
postmaster, who retained the sums collected as his own perquisite.
New Brunswick was in no respect behind the sister provinces in its
demand for the essential thing--a reduced rate of postage. The chamber
of commerce of St. John, in 1841, petitioned the postmaster general to
reduce the rate on letters exchanged between any of the post offices on
the route between St. John and Halifax to threepence, arguing that
British letters for places anywhere in the colonies were carried from
Halifax inward for one penny (the rate was really twopence), and that
letters were exchanged between the remotest places in the United States
for one shilling and threepence.
To the point respecting the conveyance of British letters, the
postmaster general replied that this part of the service was carried on
at a heavy loss, which was only to be justified as an imperial measure.
A legislative committee sitting in the same year went beyond the chamber
of commerce in its recommendations.[279] It was of opinion that there
should be a uniform rate on letters circulating within the province, and
that that rate should not exceed twopence. They, also, recommended that
newspapers, legislative papers and small pamphlets, being for the
political education of the people, should be exempt from postage
altogether. They foresaw a temporary loss if their recommendations were
carried into effect, but considered that any such loss should be made
good by the legislature.
In 1843 the legislature took up the subject again, repeating their
desire for free newspapers, and requesting that the rate on letters
exchanged within the province be fixed at threepence a single
letter.[280]
The assembly, in 1845, addressed the king on the whole question of the
post office.[281] After remonstrating on the large increase in the cost
of the provincial service, as the result of erecting a separate
establishment, they complained that, in order to bring the expenditure
within the revenue, the department had cut off several routes and
reduced the frequency of the couriers' trips on others. The charges on
letters and newspapers were so high as to impede correspondence.
The assembly in this address gave it as their opinion that if the
charges on letters were reduced by one-half, and were abolished
altogether as regards newspapers, the receipts would soon be greater
than they were. The legislature had expended L145,000 on the main roads
during the preceding ten years, and it was disheartening that the postal
accommodation was less than it had formerly been.
In their requests in 1845 for reduction of charges, the legislature were
more conservative than they had been in earlier sessions. Still
maintaining that newspapers should circulate free of postage, they were
content to ask that the charges on letters should range from sixpence to
twopence, according to the distance they were carried. They asked that
the deputy postmaster general be required to establish such additional
service as the legislature might see fit to demand; that the accounts of
the provincial system be laid annually, in full detail, before the
legislature, and that any surplus revenue be devoted to extending the
facilities for inter-provincial communication. In consideration of the
foregoing requests being granted, the legislature pledged themselves to
provide such additional sums as might from time to time be required to
defray the current charges.
The colonial office replied to this address in October of the same
year.[282] The principal points dealt with were the petition for free
newspapers, and the complaint that the accommodation to the public had
been diminished.
On the latter point, the colonial secretary stated that no services had
been affected, except where they were unnecessary. As for the question
of free newspapers, if New Brunswick could be dealt with separately from
the other provinces, there could be no objection to meeting their
wishes, but in view of the fact that the effect on the other provinces
had to be considered, the request of New Brunswick could not be granted.
The legislature in the following session took issue with the colonial
secretary on this point. It was quite open to Nova Scotia or any of the
other provinces to adopt the same policy as New Brunswick considered
advisable. The legislature took a course, which had not hitherto been
pursued by the other provinces. They besought the co-operation of a
sister province in an effort to have their desires carried into effect.
They sent a copy of the address of the previous session to Canada and
suggested a joint effort to secure reduced rates for the North American
colonies, by guaranteeing a sufficient sum in proportion to the business
of the respective provinces to make up any deficiency of a temporary
nature that might be caused by such reduction.
The post office in Prince Edward Island was involved in none of the
controversies, which agitated the people of the other provinces. It owed
its immunity to its low estate. Its revenues were never equal to the
cost of its maintenance, and consequently it was not a subject for
exploitation. A post office was opened at Charlottetown in the beginning
of the nineteenth century, and until 1827 it was the only institution of
the kind in the island.
Letters addressed to persons dwelling outside of Charlottetown, no
matter how far, remained in the post office in that town until called
for. This state of things led to many inconveniences, but it was not
until 1827 that it received official attention.
Lieutenant governor Ready, in the course of his speech at the opening of
the legislature in that year, pointed out the necessity of establishing
a postal system in the island, "as affording the means of a speedy and
safe communication with our distant population, and of conveying to them
a knowledge of the laws and proceedings of the government, which, while
it contributes to the security of the people, serves also to guard them
against the effects of misrepresentation and misconception."[283]
The legislature having expressed their concurrence in these views, the
postmaster of Charlottetown was directed to open a number of post
offices, and establish the necessary courier routes. The system began
operations on the 1st of July following.
There were three routes established. The western courier exchanged mails
at New London, Malpeque, Traveller's Rest and Tryon River, his route
being nearly ninety miles in length. The eastern courier served St.
Peter's Road, St. Peters, Bay Fortune and Grand River. This route was
upwards of one hundred miles. The south-east courier travelled
fifty-three miles, and exchanged mails at Seal River and Three Rivers.
The couriers performed their services weekly in summer and fortnightly
in winter. The rates of postage were fixed by the legislature without
regard to the postmaster general of England, and were twopence a letter
and one-halfpenny a newspaper. The report of these proceedings rather
disturbed the deputy postmaster general at Halifax, whose jurisdiction
included Prince Edward Island and who expressed his disapproval of the
course pursued by the authorities. He notified the postmaster of
Charlottetown that there was no power possessed by the government of any
colony of Great Britain to establish post offices and set up couriers,
and demanded to be furnished with the orders under which the postmaster
had acted.
The secretary of the general post office, in a letter to the postmaster
general, pointed out that the measures taken by the legislature of
Prince Edward Island were entirely illegal, but that it was a question
how far it might be expedient or politic to interfere in a settlement
where the deputy postmaster general had not thought it necessary to
establish internal communications; particularly when the communications,
if established, would probably not produce revenue sufficient to cover
the expenses.
He therefore suggested no interference be made for the present with the
arrangements in the island, and that Howe, the deputy postmaster
general, should watch the financial results of the system. If it should
appear that a revenue should arise, then the local authorities might be
advised that the postmaster general would take the arrangements into his
own hands, under the powers given by his patent, and by various acts of
parliament.
The postmaster general concurred, and Howe was duly instructed. As it
appeared at the end of the first year's operations, that the revenue
derived from the posts set up by the legislature amounted to L268, while
the expenses were L383, the postmaster general decided to leave the
service in the charge of the legislature, with instructions to Howe to
keep his attention alive to the subject in case a change in the
financial results might make it desirable for the postmaster general to
assert his authority.
The outcome of the negotiations was that the revenue collected by the
post office in its internal system was passed over to the provincial
treasury, which defrayed the cost of maintaining the couriers. The
situation remained unchanged until 1851, when the control of the post
office was formally transferred to the colonial legislature. The
financial results of the system were at no time of any considerable
magnitude, and the expenses constantly outran the revenue, though not
sufficiently to make the post office a serious burden on the provincial
revenues. In the year 1850, the total net receipts were L1441, and the
expenditure was L1528.
FOOTNOTES:
[269] Howe to Lawrence, September 2, 1839 (Br. P.O. Transcripts).
[270] _Report of Committee of Assembly_, February 25, 1842 (enclosure in
Howe to Maberly, April 4, 1842, Br. P.O. Transcripts).
[271] Falkland to colonial office, April 30, 1841 (Br. P.O.
Transcripts).
[272] _Journals of Assembly_, Canada, 1846, App. F. (E).
[273] Howe's death took place on January 18, 1843.
[274] Watson to secretary, G.P.O., July 17, 1844 (Br. P.O. Transcripts).
[275] _Journals of Assembly_, 1844.
[276] _Journals of Assembly_, 1846, and Br. P.O. Transcripts for 1845
and 1846.
[277] _Journals of Assembly_, N.B., 1841, p. 266.
[278] Page's _Inquiry_, II. 72 (Br. P.O. Transcripts).
[279] _Journals of Assembly_, N.B., 1841, p. 266.
[280] _Journals of Assembly_, N.B., 1843, p. 285.
[281] _Ibid._, 1845, p. 334.
[282] _Ibid._, 1846, p. 54.
[283] Howe to Freeling, June 10 and September 29, 1827 (Br. P.O.
Transcripts).