A point, interesting as illustrating one of the differences of view between ourselves and our grandfathers, was that the commissioners strongly recommended that the prepayment of postage on newspapers should not continue to be compulsory, but that it should be optional whether the sum should be paid by the sender or recipient of the newspaper.
It had never been held that the sender of a letter should pay the postage; and to the public it appeared a hardship that there should be a different practice as regards newspapers. Indeed the committee saw very good reasons from the standpoint of the post office why the payment of postage on newspapers should be deferred. If postmasters could add to their revenues, and consequently to their salaries, by collecting the postage when delivering newspapers, they would have a strong motive for seeing that the papers were delivered.
The commission closed their report by noting a number of the details of post office practice: the demand for more post offices throughout the provinces, which they endorsed; complaints of the inconvenience of sites of post offices; the hours post offices should be open to the public, and the time for closing the mails; special handling of money letters, and the enforcement of the terms of mail contracts, and the salaries of postmasters. On all these matters they commented at length, and made a number of helpful suggestions.
The report was presented to the governor general on December 31, 1841.
While it was in course of preparation--on November 29, 1841--the post office building in Quebec was destroyed by fire.
For Stayner this was a serious misfortune. Not only was he compelled to withdraw his attention from the affairs of the commission, in order to make provision for carrying on the departmental work, but he was crippled in drawing up his rejoinder by the fact that all his papers were consumed with the building, and material upon which he had depended for explanation and justification of transactions called in question was no longer available. His statement was not laid before the governor general until the April following.
In it, besides confuting the conclusions of the other commissioners on the matters affecting his administration of the post office, Stayner discussed a number of questions, in which he differed in opinion from his colleagues. He expressed a qualified approval of the scale of postage rates recommended in the report, and agreed entirely with them in their proposals respecting the postage on newspapers.
But Stayner was convinced that his colleagues took entirely too favourable a view as to the effect of the postage reductions on the revenue of the department, and he strongly recommended that, before the proposed changes should be approved, the whole scheme should be submitted to the provincial legislatures, with its probable financial consequences, in order that an assurance might be obtained from them that the deficits which he foresaw should be made good by the provinces.
The first of the measures taken by the government on the report of the commissioners was to deprive Stayner of a portion of his power. The proposal to place him under the direction of the governor general was not entertained in its entirety. But in August 1842, the appointment of his postmasters was taken out of his hands, and transferred to the governor general.[265]
Stayner protested that it would be out of his power satisfactorily to discharge his responsibility as resident head of the post office if he were deprived of the selection of his officials. The postmaster general may have agreed with Stayner, but the decision of the matter was not allowed to rest with him. Consequently, he had no choice, but to inform Stayner that the question was closed, and that he would have to conform to the new conditions.
So much freedom of action, however, was still left with Stayner that he was not expected to retain the services of any official who failed to satisfy his requirements. But he could no longer dismiss peremptorily.
The official under condemnation was to be afforded an opportunity for defence before his case was finally disposed of. Thereafter, and until the post office was transferred to the control of the Canadian government, whenever a vacancy occurred among the postmasters, the nomination was made by the governor, and the official appointment of the person selected, was made by the postmaster general.
In August 1843, Lord Stanley, the colonial secretary, notified the governor that on assuming office, he found awaiting him the report of the commission, but owing to the complexity of the matters involved, and to the fact that further representations on the same subject had been received from the colonies, the government was unable to arrive at a conclusion until that time.[266]
The decisions arrived at by the government and imparted to the governor were of far-reaching importance. The practice which had prevailed ever since the post office was established, of fixing the postage on letters, according to the number of enclosures they contained was to be abolished, and the weight system to be introduced to replace it. A single letter thereafter was to be one which weighed less than half an ounce, and the postage determined by the number of half ounces it weighed. The rates themselves were not changed, nor was the principle of regarding the distance a letter was carried any factor in the postage, in any way affected.
But though the effect of the substitution of the weight system for that based on enclosures was not great, so far as concerned the amount of postage required on a letter, much was gained in the direction of simplicity and propriety, when there was no longer the constant appeal to the postmaster's curiosity, and, at times, cupidity, which was made by the regulation requiring him to hold up every letter between him and a lighted candle, in order to satisfy himself as to the number of its contents.
Another reform, no less welcome to the public, was the abolition of the privilege conceded to the deputy postmaster general of putting into his own pocket the proceeds of the postage on newspapers. The recommendation of the commission that newspapers should be charged one-halfpenny each, the proceeds to form part of the post office revenue, was adopted by the government.
These changes went into operation on the 5th of January, 1844. By way of compensation to the deputy postmaster general for the loss of his newspaper and other perquisites, he was given the not unhandsome salary of 2500 sterling a year. This was an amount much beyond what the treasury considered should be paid as salary for this office, in the absence of the special circumstances of Stayner's case, and the salary of his successor was fixed at 1500 a year.[267]
The merchants and other large users of the post office, while perhaps not unmindful of what had been gained, still had little cause for satisfaction with the results of the labours of the commission.
Substantial reductions in the postage were still unattained. The movement in the colonies was greatly stimulated by the course of events in England as regards penny postage.
Post office officials had, from various motives, decried the great reform, and ministers of the crown, with their eyes on the diminished revenue, doubted whether the public benefits had been commensurate with the cost. Opposition to the continuance of the experiment had reached a point when it became a question whether modifications in the direction of higher charges should not be made.
In 1844 the government appointed a committee of the house of commons to inquire as to the measure of public benefit that could fairly be attributed to penny postage. The committee made no report, but they submitted a mass of evidence taken from every quarter of the kingdom, and from every walk in life, that effectually silenced objectors, and aroused a desire in all civilized countries for the enjoyment of a similar boon, to the extent that their circumstances would permit. The United States, in 1846, after a period of agitation, reduced its charges to five cents a letter, where the conveyance did not exceed a distance of three thousand miles, doubling the charge for greater distances.
The British North American colonies shared to the full in the general desire for the abatement of the impediments to the freer circulation of correspondence. The Canadian legislature, in 1845, was called upon to deal with a number of memorials on this subject, and asked Stayner for his advice.
Stayner was prepared to welcome any reductions that the legislature might be able to obtain, but he warned them that whatever might be the ultimate effect of lowered postage rates on the augmentation of correspondence, there would be an intermediate period, in which the shrinkage of revenue would be considerable, and it was for the legislature to determine whether the general financial condition of the province would warrant their incurring even a temporary deficit in the post office.
The legislature having in view the fact that the surplus revenue of the post office was only 8000 at the time, decided that it would be unwise to embark on any undertaking that threatened them with additional financial burdens.[268] But the public in Canada were of a different opinion. The boards of trade of Montreal, Toronto and Quebec petitioned the postmaster general for a rate of twopence-halfpenny a letter, and, in 1846, the legislature casting caution aside presented a strong address to the queen. In it they pointed out the hardship endured by British subjects in one portion of the empire, in being compelled to pay extravagant charges for that which is enjoyed by others at merely nominal cost; and begged to be put on an equal footing in this regard with the citizens of the United States.
The legislatures of the Maritime provinces were pressing on the home government demands of a similar character with equal vigour, and as the policy adopted by the home government was the result of the combined pressure, and affected all the colonies identically, it is desirable, before dealing with that policy, to bring the narrative of events in the Maritime provinces forward to this point.
FOOTNOTES:
[264] This report, with the data obtained by the commissioners, is printed as Appendix F to the _Sessional Papers of Canada for_ 1846.
[265] Circular Letter of Instructions, August 1842 (_Journals of Assembly_, N.B., 1843, p. 36).
[266] _Journals of Assembly_, Canada, 1843, p. 51.
[267] Maberly to Stayner, July 27, 1844 (Br. P.O. Transcripts).
[268] _Journals of Assembly_, Canada, 1844-1845, App. P.P.P.
CHAPTER XIV
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 378, whereas the expenditure was rather more than 900 beyond this sum. On the eastern line, the shortage to be made up by the legislature was over 450. The northern line, that is, through Londonderry, Amherst, Wallace, Dorchester and Parrsboro nearly paid its expenses. The province had to contribute no more than 60, 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.