Postal service of Manitoba, the North-West provinces and
British Columbia--Summary of progress since Confederation.
When Sir Adams Archibald, the first lieutenant governor of the
newly-formed province of Manitoba, reached Winnipeg in the summer of
1870 for the purpose of taking over his government, he made a survey of
the administrative system which he found there.
The postal arrangements were very simple.[313] There were but four post
offices in the province, and three mail routes. The principal route,
that upon which the settlement depended for its communication with the
outer world, ran down the Red River from Pembina, on the border, to
Winnipeg. The second followed the river down as far as St. Andrew's; and
the third connected the town of Portage La Prairie with Winnipeg, by a
weekly-courier service along the Assiniboine river. The mails on the
other two routes were carried twice each week.
The carriage of the mails between Pembina and Winnipeg was originally a
private enterprise, but was afterwards assumed by the government of
Assiniboia. There was a postage charge of one penny on all letters and
of one-halfpenny on all newspapers, passing in and out of the territory,
in addition to the postage due for conveyance between Pembina and the
place of origin or destination.
The system in the settlement was not recognized by the United States
government, and letters were not considered as regularly posted until
they were deposited in Pembina post office. Consequently the only
postage stamps were those of the United States, which were sold in the
post offices of the settlement.
The letters and newspapers passing between Winnipeg and Pembina during
the month of August 1870 were counted, and it was found that within that
period, there were 1018 letters and 196 newspapers sent from Winnipeg to
Pembina, and 960 letters and 1375 newspapers passed into the settlement.
The opportunity afforded by the extension of the United States postal
service into the northern parts of Minnesota was a great boon to the
inhabitants of the isolated settlement. Until that time, the only
communication between the Red River and the world outside was by means
of the semi-annual packets, by which the Hudson's Bay Company maintained
its communication with its posts, which were scattered over its vast
territories.[314]
Once in each year a vessel sailed from the Thames for York Factory on
the western shore of Hudson's Bay bringing the goods used for barter
with the Indians, and carrying back to London the peltries which were
the produce of the previous year's trade. To meet this vessel, a brigade
of dog-sleighs set out from fort Garry about December 10, when, the ice
having formed and the snow fallen, travelling was easy. The first
stopping place was at Norway House, at the northern end of lake
Winnipeg. The distance, about 350 miles, was travelled in eight days.
Here the contents of the packet were separated, one portion being
detained for the posts in the west, and the other for York Factory. The
couriers with the mails from the ship in Hudson's Bay connected at
Norway House with those from Red River, and after mails had been
exchanged, each returned to his point of departure. The mail from
England reached fort Garry in February.
The other means of communication was by the packet which was despatched
overland in the winter to Montreal. The courier returned to the
settlement in the spring, travelling by canoes from Lachine up the
Ottawa river and along the Mattawin to lake Nipissing, thence down the
French river to Georgian Bay. Crossing the bay and lakes Huron and
Superior, the travellers entered the Kaministiquia at fort William, and
passing by alternate water stretches and portages into the Winnipeg
river, they made their way by canoe to lake Winnipeg, and landed at the
outlet of the Red River, eighteen miles north of fort Garry. This
journey occupied about six weeks.
The extent of the isolation of the settlement during the early period is
thus vividly described:--[315]
"Thus matters went on during the first forty years of our existence as a
settlement. We were kept in blissful ignorance of all that transpired
abroad until about eight months after actual occurrence. Our easy-going
and self-satisfied gentry received their yearly fyles of newspapers
about a twelvemonth after the date of the last publication, and read
them with avidity, patiently wading through the whole in a manner which
did no violence to chronology. Wars were undertaken and
completed--protocolling was at an end and peace signed, long before we
could hear that a musket had been shouldered or a cannon fired."
The Hudson's Bay packets were placed at the service of the settlers, but
not quite without reserve. The company, which employed the packets
primarily for the conduct of their business, did not intend that they
should be used against their interests. They had a monopoly of the
fur-trade, which they proposed to hold, as far as possible, intact.
There were a number of traders in the settlement, who bought on their
own account, and made use of such means of transport as they were able
to discover, to get their furs out of the country.
To prevent the operations of these interlopers, the company had recourse
to a measure which was vastly unpopular in the settlement. The governor
of Assiniboia, in a proclamation, dated December 20, 1844, directed that
all letters intended to be despatched by the winter express, must be
left at his office on or before the 1st of January. Every letter must
bear the writer's name, and if the writer was not one of those who had
lodged a declaration against trafficking in furs, he was obliged to
deposit the letter open, to be closed at the governor's office.[316]
This obnoxious order remained in force until 1848.
This arbitrary measure on the part of the company excited intense
feelings among the settlers, and disposed them to hail with satisfaction
the approach of the lines of the American postal service towards the
company's southern borders. In 1853, when the American government
established a post office at fort Ripley, a number of the settlers in
the Red River settlement formed a post office at fort Garry, and opened
a monthly communication with the post office in Minnesota.[317] At the
same time a post office was also opened in the settlement of St.
Andrews, fourteen miles further down the Red River. In 1857, the United
States postal service was extended to the company's border, at Pembina,
and the infant system in the settlement was connected with this office.
The relation of dependence, which the Red River settlement was beginning
to assume towards the United States, attracted attention in Canada, and
fears were expressed as to the political future of the great
hinterland. In 1857, the Toronto board of trade addressed a memorial to
the government,[318] pointing out the situation in the north-west, and
urged the expediency of establishing a post route and telegraph line
between Canada and British Columbia, over Canadian and Hudson's Bay
territory.
The government acted upon the suggestion without loss of time. A mail
service was opened in the summer of 1858 to the Red River
settlement.[319] Mails were carried twice a month between Collingwood
and fort William by steamer, and from the latter point to the Red River
by canoe. When winter closed the water routes, a monthly packet by
dog-sleigh carried the mails, the carrier travelling along the north
shore of lakes Huron and Superior.
But this effort to establish a direct connection between Canada and the
north-west was not a success. The difficulties of travel placed this
route at a hopeless disadvantage with that through the United States,
which gave the people of the settlement a direct communication with but
seventy miles of transportation on their part. The service was abandoned
after two years, and shortly afterwards the improvements in the service
of Pembina in the United States system, enabled the settlers on the Red
River to exchange mails with the outer world twice each week.
But the failure of this scheme was merely the prelude to the greater
scheme, advocated by the Toronto board of trade. The Canadian government
opened a correspondence with the Hudson's Bay Company on the questions
of a post road and telegraph across the Continent.[320] On its part, the
government was prepared to adopt any measure which would facilitate
travel over the stretch which lay between the settled parts of Canada
and the Hudson's Bay territory. Appropriations were made for roads
through to Red River, and it was hoped that free grants of land would
induce people to settle along the route.
The discovery of gold on the Saskatchewan, with the anticipated influx
of gold-seekers from the United States made the question one of great
urgency. The only access to the territories was through the state of
Minnesota, and it was feared that the settlement at Red River would
inevitably imbibe principles inimical to the British interests. Unless
Canada could offer a passage into the territories, equal in
accommodation to that afforded by the United States, the territories
would in no long time be occupied by foreigners, British rule would
virtually have passed away, and the key to the trade to British Columbia
and ultimately to China surrendered to rivals.
Dallas, the resident governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, looked at the
question from the standpoint of the company's interests. He pointed out
that the establishment of a line of communication across the territories
of the company would be seriously prejudicial to those interests. The
Red River and Saskatchewan valleys, though not in themselves fur-bearing
districts, were the sources from which the main supply of winter food
were procured for the northern posts, from the produce of the buffalo
hunts.
A chain of settlements through these valleys would not only deprive the
company of these vital resources, but would indirectly, in other ways,
so interfere with their northern trade as to render it no longer worth
prosecuting on an extended scale. It would necessarily be diverted into
various channels, possibly to the public benefit, but the company could
no longer exist on its present footing.
The Canadian government was far from satisfied with this answer. As they
saw it, the question resolved itself into simply this: Should these
magnificent territories continue to be merely the source of supply for a
few hundreds of the employees of a fur-trading company, or be the means
of affording new and boundless contributions to civilization and
commerce? Should they remain closed to the enterprise and industry of
millions, in order that a few might monopolize all their treasures and
keep them for all time to come, as the habitation of wild beasts and the
trappers engaged in their pursuit?
The postmaster general in making his report to the council estimated
that the cost of a road and water connections with Red River would cost
L80,000, and from that settlement to the passes of the Rocky Mountains,
L100,000, and recommended that the Canadian parliament should
appropriate $50,000 a year for a number of years for this project.
The Red River settlement approached the Canadian government on the
subject, undertaking to build a road to the head of the Lake of the
Woods, if the Canadian or British government would construct a practical
passage from lake Superior to meet this road. The British government, to
whom a copy of this memorial was sent by Sandford Fleming, replied that
plans were almost matured for establishing a postal and telegraphic
communication with British Columbia, and it was expected that with the
aid of the two colonies, the scheme would be entered upon at no distant
date.
An obstacle to the settlement of the plans lay in the indeterminate
nature of the claims of the Hudson's Bay Company to the territory over
which the means of communication should pass, and the Canadian
government declined to participate in the project while these claims
remained unsettled. They opened correspondence with the British
government with the view to determine the questions in dispute,
maintaining at the same time the right of Canada to take over all that
portion of central British America which was in the possession of the
French at the period of the session in 1763.[321] The question of postal
communication was as a consequence postponed to the larger question of
Canada's acquiring these territories, and this was not settled until
1870.
In 1865, the Hudson's Bay Company sent Dr. John Rae, the Arctic
explorer, to ascertain the practicability of establishing communication
by telegraph across the continent. His report was favourable, and the
company went so far into the scheme as to send a quantity of telegraph
wire into the territory. But as their continued ownership and monopoly
of the territory became increasingly uncertain, the company suspended
operations, and these were not resumed.
In April 1862 the governor and council of Assiniboia by an ordinance
established a postal system in the settlement. James Ross was appointed
postmaster in the middle section of the settlement, with a salary of L10
per annum; and Thomas Sinclair, postmaster of the lower section, with a
salary of L6 per annum. A mail was to be carried between the settlement
and Pembina at the public expense, in connection with the United States
mail to Pembina. The postal charges between the settlement and Pembina
were fixed at a penny per half ounce for letters, twopence for each
magazine or review, and one-halfpenny for each newspaper. For books, the
charges were fivepence for half a pound or under, one shilling for one
and a half pounds, and twopence for each additional half pound.[322]
This embryo system was in operation when Sir Adams Archibald arrived in
the new province as lieutenant governor. He lost no time in putting the
system on as efficient a footing as the circumstances permitted, and in
incorporating it into the postal system of the dominion.
The postmaster general arranged with the post office department of the
United States for the transmission across its territory by way of
Chicago and St. Paul, of mails between Windsor, Ontario and Winnipeg.
The postal rates in force in the dominion were applied to the new
province; and in November the post offices were provided with Canadian
postage stamps, to replace those of the United States, which had been
used until that time.
The means of transportation through the United States was gradually
improved, and advantage was taken of these ameliorations to improve the
communication of Manitoba. In 1879 the completion of the railway between
the Pembina and Winnipeg left little to be desired in the facilities
enjoyed by the province for the exchange of correspondence. But it was
still dependent on the good will of the United States for these
facilities. It was not until 1884 that the completion of the Canadian
Pacific railway between Winnipeg and eastern Canada provided a
connection across Canadian territory.
* * * * *
The need for a regular postal service in British Columbia did not arise
until 1858, the year in which the gold discoveries in the mainland
brought large numbers of miners to seek their fortunes in that country.
The colony of Vancouver Island had been in the process of settlement by
the Hudson's Bay Company since 1849, but the success of the company had
been but moderate. The whole population in 1856--scarcely equal to that
of a small town--was gathered together in Victoria and its environs, and
their requirements as regards correspondence were limited to a
communication with Great Britain.
The home government gave early attention to the question of providing
these means. On August 3, 1858, the day after the act providing for the
government of the new colony had been adopted, the colonial secretary
wrote to the treasury, pointing out that the establishment of the new
colony, and the large influx of immigrants thereto, made it desirable
that some safe and regular communication should be formed between the
colony and the kingdom, and asking that the lords commissioners should
consider the possibility of such a suggestion.[323]
The treasury consulted the admiralty and the post office. Neither
department could suggest a scheme which would not involve an outlay
much beyond the ideas of the treasury as to the importance of the
objects to be attained. The post office proposed sending mails to Colon,
at the entrance to the Panama railway by the steamers of the Royal Mail
Packet Company, thence to Panama by railway. The voyage occupied from
sixteen to twenty days and the passage across the isthmus about five
hours.
The conveyance from Panama to Victoria offered greater difficulties. The
connection between British mail steamers arriving at Colon and the
United States steamers running from Panama to San Francisco, was so
faulty, that the mails would have to lie at Panama as long as two weeks
before they were taken forward. The passage to San Francisco occupied
two weeks, and from this point to Victoria from four to five days. The
delay at the isthmus was usually avoided by taking the steamer from
England to New York, from whence a line of steamers ran to Colon in
close connection with the Pacific steamers from Panama. By the latter
route the journey from London to Victoria was made in about forty-five
days.
But the important consideration with the treasury was the very
considerable cost. The preference of the government was for an
all-British conveyance. This could be arranged by having a steamer,
subsidized by the government, take the mails from the Cunard vessels at
either Halifax or New York, and carry them to Colon, and by providing
other vessels under its control to make the conveyance from Panama to
Victoria. The enormous cost of these services precluded the adoption of
this scheme, until the colony had grown to an extent that it could bear,
at least, part of the cost. It was estimated that the steamer on the
Atlantic coast would call for an outlay of L25,000 a year, while the
Pacific line would cost not less than L100,000 a year.
A solution of the difficulty was found through the good offices of the
United States government. There was a service carried on twice a week
between St. Louis, Missouri and San Francisco. The route was 2,765 miles
in length, and it was covered by four-horse coaches with great
regularity in twenty-two days.
This service, the United States government placed at the disposal of the
British post office for the exchange of its correspondence with its
distant colony. The mails on their arrival at San Francisco were
delivered to the British consul, who arranged for their transmission to
their destination.
At the best, the isolation of the new settlement was extreme. There had
been a newspaper in Victoria since June 1858. It was published weekly,
and for two weeks out of three, its columns were confined to purely
local news. The third issue presented the appearance of a modern
newspaper. The steamer "Eliza Anderson" had arrived from Olympia,
bringing with it the despatches from San Francisco, containing news from
all parts of the world.
How belated the news was may be gathered from a glance over one of the
issues. The issue of March 9 contained news from San Francisco, not
later than February 8, and from St. Louis, the latest date was February
5. As St. Louis was within the eastern telegraph system, the papers from
the city contained despatches from all parts of the United States and
Canada. It was observed that among the items of news was the arrival of
the steamer "Bohemia" at New York, with the Liverpool newspapers of
January 18. So that under ordinary circumstances, news from England was
fifty days old before it reached the public in Victoria.
The construction of a telegraph line to the Pacific in the autumn of
1861, and the extension of the lines of the California State Telegraphic
Company to Portland, Oregon, in 1864, did much to relieve the situation,
so far as concerned news important enough to be sent by telegraph to the
newspapers in San Francisco.
But the ordinary news from Canada did not reach Victoria by telegraph,
and the length of the delay in the transmission of news from Canada by
letter may be seen from the fact that the _British Colonist_ of November
11, 1864, contained a newsletter from Canada, dated September 30--six
weeks earlier. Governor Kennedy in his annual report to the colonial
secretary on the state of the colony in 1864 observed that "expensive
and defective postal and other communications are the great bar
to progress, and reflect but little credit on the two great
nations--England and America. A _Times_ newspaper costs fourpence
postage, and that for a book is entirely prohibitory."
Arrangements of a simple character were made for the conveyance of
letters into the sections occupied by the miners. In November 1858,
governor Douglas reported that the men at the mines--nearly all of whom
were on the course of the Fraser river--numbered 10,500. He also stated
that he had arranged a postal system on a small scale, which provided
for the wants of the country, at an expenditure which was fully covered
by the receipts.
The earliest letter delivery in this region was carried on by the
express companies, whose operations were extended from California to
British Columbia, with the migration of the miners to the
newly-discovered gold districts. This mode of delivery is described by a
British naval officer, who spent four years in the country, as one of
the safest imaginable. He states that "so great is his faith in them
that he would trust anything in even that most insecure country
(California) in an envelope bearing the stamp of the Wells Fargo and
Company's express."[324]
In May 1858 the colonial administration arranged with the private
expresses for conveyance of letters anywhere within the colonies of
British Columbia and Vancouver Island on condition of the prepayment of
five cents per letter, as colonial postage.[325]
This rudimentary arrangement was replaced in 1864 by a regular
departmental postal service with headquarters at New Westminster.[326]
The charges on letters and newspapers sent by post were fixed as
follows: for every letter to and from British Columbia and Vancouver
Island, delivered at Victoria or New Westminster, threepence per half
ounce; on every newspaper posted under the same circumstances, one
penny; on every letter from a post office at any one place in the colony
to a post office at any other place in the colony, sixpence per half
ounce; for a newspaper posted for delivery under the same circumstances,
sixpence; on letters from any other place than Vancouver Island,
threepence in addition to the foreign postage.
The year following the union of the two governments of British Columbia
and Vancouver Island, an ordinance was passed by the government, dated
April 2, 1867, in which a new set of rates were established. On a letter
passing between any two post offices in Vancouver Island or between any
of these offices and New Westminster or any port in the colony, the rate
was five cents; between Vancouver Island or New Westminster on the one
side and Clinton or Savona's Ferry, the rate was twelve and a half
cents; where letters pass beyond those distances the charge was
twenty-five cents.
For letters exchanged between any two post offices above Yale, Hope or
Douglas, the rate was twelve and a half cents. In each case the unit of
weight was an ounce. The charge on newspapers passing between any two
post offices in the colony was two cents each. At this period there were
eighteen post offices on the mainland and eight on the island.
The situation of the post office in British Columbia stood thus when the
colony became one of the provinces of the dominion. By the act of
confederation the postal service was incorporated into the Federal
system which was administered by the post office department at Ottawa.
The rates of postage in British Columbia were made uniform with the
charges in the other provinces, viz., three cents per half ounce for
letters, and one cent for newspapers.
Communication between British Columbia and Canada east of the Rocky
Mountains was far from satisfactory. Until the completion of the
Canadian Pacific railway in 1885, the eastern provinces had to depend
entirely upon the United States postal system for the means of
communication with British Columbia. At the time of the entrance of the
province into the confederation, the opportunities for an exchange of
correspondence were limited to twice a week.
The mails were conveyed from San Francisco by railway and stage to
Olympia, between which point and Victoria, semi-weekly trips were made
by steamer. There was also a service twice a month, between Victoria and
San Francisco. The maintenance of these connections between San
Francisco and Vancouver Island was stipulated for among the conditions
of union of British Columbia with the dominion of Canada.
Within the province, the mails were carried by the steamer "Sir James
Douglas" along the east coast of Vancouver Island and Comox. The
mainland was supplied with mails by a steamer which ran twice a week
between Vancouver and New Westminster. In the interior of the province,
the mails were carried by steamer up the Fraser river to Yale, thence
northward to Barkerville. The distance between New Westminster and
Barkerville was 486 miles. The service from Yale to Barkerville was by
means of stages, drawn by four or six horses. This service was carried
on weekly during summer, and fortnightly during the winter. Striking off
westward from this route at Quesnelle, there was another to Omenica, 350
miles, over which the mails were carried monthly.[327]
* * * * *
In bringing the narrative to a point where the several provincial
systems were incorporated into one system controlled by the post office
department at Ottawa, I have completed the task I undertook. It remains
only to note in a summary manner the progress that was made by the post
office from Confederation to the Great War.
[Illustration: ROBERT MILLAR COULTER. M.D., C.M.G.
(_Deputy Postmaster General since 1897_)]
On the formation of the present department, there were 3477 post offices
in the system. In 1914 this number had been increased to 13,811. The
expansion of the lines of the service in the four older provinces,
though considerable, is not comparable with that in the provinces
comprehended in the territories west of the Great Lakes. In Nova Scotia,
New Brunswick, and the better settled parts of Quebec and Ontario, the
characteristic of the increase is the greater frequency of travel on
already established roads, and, particularly, the acceleration of
correspondence by the introduction of railways into the parts of the
provinces.
In 1867 there were but 2278 miles of railway in Canada. In the
forty-seven years which followed this mileage was augmented to 30,795.
The narrow line of settlement in Ontario from the Quebec boundary to
Toronto had expanded to a breadth, covering the extent of country from
lake Ontario to the watershed, dividing the waters flowing south from
those running into Hudson's Bay.
But the great expansion has taken place in the provinces on the plains
between the Great Lakes and the Rocky Mountains--in the New Canada
beyond the Great Lakes. On entering Confederation, the postal
arrangements in this vast territory comprised but six post offices, with
a system of mail service of no more than 145 miles. Since 1867 a system
has been created in these western provinces containing in 1914 over
42,000 miles, of which 16,500 miles are of railroad. The number of post
offices in this year was 3402.
The expansion in British Columbia if not equal in magnitude to that in
the prairie and grain-growing provinces, keeps full pace with the
requirements of that province. There were thirty post offices in the
province in 1871 when the colony entered Confederation. These had
increased to 799 in 1914. The system in the earlier period comprised
3412 miles. This had increased to over 12,000 miles in 1914; of these
3200 were by railroad, and 5000 by steam or sailing vessel.
The outstanding feature of the interchange of correspondence between the
several provinces at the time they entered Confederation is the
dependence on the postal service of the United States for the means by
which it was carried on. As between the old province of Canada and the
Maritime provinces, there was indeed a mail service by coach between
Truro, sixty miles west of Halifax, and Riviere du Loup, 120 miles east
of Quebec. But, apart from the fact that the trips were made no more
frequently than three times a week, the utter inadequacy of such a mode
of conveyance over a route 485 miles in length was obvious to those who
could use the railways of the United States for the same purpose.
The provinces had been united politically for nine years before the
completion of the inter-colonial railway provided the means of direct
communication between them. Until 1876 the usual course for the mails
between the Maritime provinces and the old province of Canada was by
railway from St. John, New Brunswick to Bangor, Maine, thence to
Portland, where connection was made with the Grand Trunk system.
As the western provinces came into the Confederation they exhibited in
an even more marked degree the dependence on the good will of the United
States for communication with the older provinces. The construction of
the Canadian Pacific railway westward around the head of lake Superior
and the continuance of its course across the plains of the north-west
territories, and over the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean,
gradually relaxed that dependence.
But Manitoba had been a province of the dominion for fourteen years
before the first train ran over an all-Canadian route between that
province and Ontario, and it was two years later before British Columbia
was linked up with its sister provinces by this means.
During these periods the mails for Manitoba were despatched from Windsor
by way of Chicago, St. Paul's and Pembina, Dakota: those for British
Columbia, by way of San Francisco. Fortunately, the geographical
position of Canada with reference to the western and north-western
states, enabled the post office of this country to reciprocate, more or
less adequately, the services rendered in the maintenance of
communication between the several provinces.
Concurrently with the expansion of the postal system has gone a steady
reduction in the postal rates. The charge of five cents per half ounce
on letters was lowered to three cents per half ounce in the first
session of parliament after Confederation. The effect of the reduction
on the volume of correspondence exchanged was manifested in the fact
that, although the reduction was the very considerable one of forty per
cent., the revenue in 1871 was greater by $55,000 than the amount
collected three years before.
The rate of three cents per half ounce, which was fixed in 1868,
remained unchanged for twenty-one years, when the unit of weight was
changed from half an ounce to one ounce, the rate becoming in 1889 three
cents per ounce. The final reduction in the rate was made on January 1,
1899, two cents being substituted for three cents as the rate of postage
for an ounce letter.
In 1878 Canada became a member of the Universal Postal Union, an
organization whose purpose it was to make in effect a single postal
territory of the whole world. The obstacles to the interchange of
correspondence between the various countries owing to differences in
charges and regulations, had long been felt as a serious impediment to
the cultivation of social and commercial relations which there was a
general desire to foster, and some tentative efforts had been made,
notably by the United States, to ameliorate the conditions governing
international correspondence by the establishment of uniform regulations
for this class of correspondence.
Twenty-two states, comprising the leading countries in Europe, the
United States, and Egypt sent delegates to a conference that assembled
at Berne in 1874, and the result of their deliberations was a convention
which established a code of regulations and fixed uniform postage rates
respecting correspondence passing anywhere within the union.
The benefits conferred by the union on those, who, for any reason, had
to carry on correspondence with foreign countries were inestimable. Some
illustrations drawn from the case of Canada will be enlightening. In
1873 letters sent to India were subject to two different rates,
according to the route by which they were directed. If sent by Canadian
steamers to Great Britain, and thence on to their destination, the
charge was twenty-two cents; if sent by the United States, the charge
was thirteen cents. To Chili, Peru, and Ecuador, there were two routes
and two rates; by way of England, the charge was forty cents, by way of
the United States, twenty-five cents.
The extreme instance of variation in the charges according to the route
chosen was in the case of letters from the United States to Australia.
There were six different routes, and the postal guide set out the
different charges: five cents, thirty-three cents, forty-five cents,
fifty-five cents, sixty cents, and one dollar, according to the route by
which the letters were sent.
Difficulties of an accounting nature arising from different standards of
weights hampered the operations of the officials in preparing the
mails. Thus a letter from Great Britain to Germany, passing through
France was taxed at a certain rate per half ounce in England, another
rate per ten grams in France, and, finally, a third rate per loth[328]
in Germany.
Many of these trammels to correspondence were removed by special
conventions before the Postal Union came into being. But how many
remained may be judged from the fact that the Canadian postal guide,
issued shortly before Canada was admitted to the Postal Union, contained
a list of rates to 127 different countries, which must be consulted by
correspondents and postal officials before the charge on a letter going
abroad could be ascertained.
The immediate effect of coming into the union was the removal of these
extensive and complicated lists from the postal guide, and their
replacement by a single sentence, in which the charge on letters for all
the countries in the union was stated to be five cents per half ounce.
The Postal Union did not at that time comprehend all countries, though
it did all the most important, but since then adhesions have been made
from year to year until to-day there is scarcely a country to which
letters are written, which does not come within its scope.
In 1898, at Canada's instance, a closer union was formed for penny
postage within the British Empire. It went into effect on Christmas day
of that year. It did not include all parts of the Empire at the time it
was formed, Australia being deterred from associating itself with the
scheme, by financial considerations.
A few years ago Australia found itself able to adjust the difficulties
with which it was confronted when the union was formed, and the imperial
penny postage scheme is operative in all parts of the Empire.
In 1903 the postmaster general of Canada opened negotiations with the
administrations of the various parts of the Empire for a reduction of
the postal rates on newspapers. His proposition was to allow newspapers
to circulate throughout the Empire at the same rates as were charged for
their transmission within the countries from which they were sent. The
proposition encountered much opposition at the outset, but it made
gradual progress, and to-day a newspaper may be sent from Canada to
Great Britain and several other portions of the Empire at the same rate
as would carry it from one place to another in Canada.
The auxiliary postal services--the money order and the savings
bank--have expanded in their operations enormously between the period of
Confederation and the present time. In 1868 there were 515 money order
offices in the provinces comprising the dominion, and the amount of the
orders issued by them was $3,342,574. The corresponding figures for 1914
were 4274 offices, which issued orders to the amount of $118,731,966.
The post office savings bank was not in operation prior to
Confederation. It was established in April 1868, and at the end of the
first year 213 post offices were charged with the duty of receiving and
paying out savings deposits. The deposits at the end of the first year
amounted to $861,655. In 1914 there were 1250 post offices doing savings
bank business, and the deposits amounted to $11,346,457, and the balance
standing at the credit of depositors was $41,591,286.
The financial operations of the Canadian post office have undergone a
great expansion. The revenues which at the end of the first year of
Confederation were $1,024,711, have, in spite of the steady reduction in
the charges, been multiplied sixteen-fold within the forty-eight years
since that period. In 1914 the amount collected for its services reached
$16,865,451.
It is interesting, as illustrating the much greater use made of the post
office by the public in Canada, to note that while the revenue has
increased sixteen times, the population has not much more than doubled
within the same period. In 1868, when the population of the four
original provinces was given as 3,879,885, the amount paid to the post
office was $1,024,711; in 1914, when the population was 8,075,000 the
revenue was $16,865,451. Thus, notwithstanding the fact that for every
letter posted during the first year of Confederation five cents was
exacted by the post office, while in 1914 two cents only was demanded,
the average expenditure for each member of the population was in 1868,
rather less than twenty-seven cents, while in 1914 it was a small
fraction over two dollars.
The Canadian post office has been on a sound footing as a business
institution for a number of years past. This fact is more notable than
would perhaps appear. The postal system of this country embraces a
territory more extended than that served by any other system on earth,
except the United States and Russia; and the population to utilize its
services, and thereby furnish its revenues, is very much less than that
of either of these countries.
Circumstances, incident to the expansion of settlement or the providing
of new facilities, are constantly arising, which compel the department
to embark on expenditures from which adequate returns can be expected
only in the distant future.
As instances, when Manitoba and the north-west territories were added to
the dominion, one of the early measures of the department was to
establish a line of mail route from Winnipeg to Edmonton, at a cost of
$10,000, while the receipts from the whole north-west territories was
considerably less than $100. The completion of the Canadian Pacific
railway to Vancouver in 1885 involved the department in outlays, which
exceeded the revenues by over $200,000 a year.
Nor has it been only by the weight of unavoidable expenditure that the
department has been impeded in its efforts to make ends meet. The policy
of the government has also operated to deprive it of what in all other
countries is regarded as a source of legitimate revenue.
Newspapers have always been circulated through Canada by the post office
on terms most advantageous to the public. In 1875 publishers were
permitted to send their papers to subscribers at the rate of one cent
per pound. Even this small charge was removed in 1882, and for the
following seventeen years newspapers addressed to subscribers were
exempt from all charges.
In 1899 a small charge was imposed, which, after some variations, was
fixed at a quarter cent per pound. As the cost to the post office of
handling and transmitting newspapers is estimated as from four cents to
six cents per pound, it is clear that the loss to the department on this
head reaches a large amount each year. In spite of these facts, however,
the revenues of the department have steadily increased, and since 1903,
when they first surpassed the outlay, they have maintained an ascendancy
which it is improbable will be overcome.
FOOTNOTES:
[313] _Sess. Papers_, Canada, 1871, No. 20.
[314] Hargrave's _Red River_, p. 155.
[315] _The Nor'-Wester_, January 28, 1860.
[316] Minutes of evidence taken before the select committee on the
Hudson's Bay Company, Ques. 4772 (_House of Commons Papers_, 1857).
[317] Hargrave's _Red River_, p. 100.
[318] _Journals, Leg. Assy._, Canada, 1857, p. 207.
[319] Report of P.M.G. of Canada, 1859.
[320] _Sess. Papers_, Canada, 1863, Nos. 29 and 31.
[321] _Sess. Papers_, Canada, 1864, No. 62.
[322] _Ibid._, 1871, No. 20, p. 132.
[323] _House of Commons (British) Papers_, 1859.
[324] Mayne's _Four Years in British Columbia and Vancouver Island_
(1862), p. 71.
[325] Begg's _History of British Columbia_, p. 311.
[326] Postal act of British Columbia, May 4, 1864.
[327] Report of the P.M.G. of Canada, 1872.
[328] Varying from 225 to 270 grains troy.