Prepayment or payment on delivery of letters should be optional, and franking abolished.
The treasury to whom this report was submitted, approved of the arrangements proposed, except that relating to the payment for the British mails to and from the port of destination in America. But they contented themselves with observing that this remained a matter of negotiation between the home and the colonial departments; and stated that as soon as the arrangements had been sufficiently matured, the requisite steps would be taken for the transfer of the postal communications to the provincial authorities.
Nova Scotia, which had taken the leading part in the negotiations which had brought matters to the point they had reached, again took up the leadership. On the 21st of March, 1848, the legislature adopted the report of the commissioners, and directed the attorney general to prepare a bill based on the view of Grey and Clanricarde, pledging themselves to make good any deficiency which might take place in the post office revenue of that province.
The bill to effect this arrangement was adopted by the legislature on April 4.[288] Thus all necessary action on the part of that province was complete, and the measure was ready to be put into operation, as soon as the British government and the other colonies had taken the necessary action on their part.
Following up the enactment of this measure, the Nova Scotia legislature appointed James B. Uniacke, the chairman of the post office committee, to visit Canada, and lay before the governor general the views of Nova Scotia on the subject of the provincial post office and to endeavour to settle with Canada the questions necessary to be disposed of before the post office could be established.
Uniacke arrived in Montreal on the 8th of June, and had interviews with Elgin and the executive council. Two days later the council adopted a report drawn up in terms differing but slightly from those of the commission of 1847, and recommending the adoption of a uniform rate of threepence (five cents) throughout British North America.
The other recommendations were the same as those submitted by the committee, with the addition that postage stamps should be issued for the use of the public. The council were of opinion that the provisions recommended should be introduced in a bill, to be laid before parliament, and expressed the hope that the postmaster general might be given full discretionary powers in matters referring to the colonial post office, and that Her Majesty's government might be persuaded to adopt the above rates and regulations without further delay, the council pledging the administration to make good any excess of expenditure over revenue which may possibly arise in carrying out such arrangement.[289]
The government of Nova Scotia then approached that of New Brunswick, the lieutenant governor at Fredericton being informed of the result of Uniacke's visit to Canada and that all that was now required was the assent of the government of New Brunswick and the approval of the imperial authorities. The governor general added a word to the intimation of the lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia, and it was settled that legislation would be introduced into the New Brunswick legislature in accordance with the terms agreed upon.[290]
All requisite measures for establishing the colonial post offices on an independent footing were matured, so far as could be done, by the legislatures themselves, and nothing now remained but the imperial sanction. This the law officers were of opinion would require an act of the imperial parliament, and on the 28th of July, 1849,[291] an act was passed empowering the legislative authorities in any of the colonies to establish and maintain a system of posts, to charge rates of postage for the conveyance of correspondence, and to appropriate to their own uses the revenue to be derived therefrom. With this action taken, the control of the imperial government over the colonial posts should cease and determine.
The government of Prince Edward Island, though invited by Elgin to participate in the conference at Montreal in October 1846, took no part in it. In November 1847, Johnston, one of the representatives from Nova Scotia, sent to the lieutenant governor a copy of the report of the Montreal commission, requesting an expression of his sentiments, and inquiring as to the prospect of the legislature concurring in the opinions contained in the report.
The deputy postmaster general in the course of an examination of the report pointed out that the only valid objection the government of Prince Edward Island could have to the adoption of its conclusions, was that the uniform charge of threepence on inter-colonial correspondence would make a serious inroad in the receipts of the Prince Edward Island post office.
The island post office had been in the practice of adding to the postage charged on inter-colonial letters, the inland rate of twopence a letter.
If the terms of the report were adopted in their entirety, and a uniform rate were charged throughout the provinces of threepence a letter, the island would have to relinquish its inland charge.
The deputy postmaster general took a serious view of the effect of the proposed relinquishment of the inland postage. The revenue for 1850 was 1440. Applying his estimates of the proportions by which the receipts from the several classes of correspondence would be reduced, he concluded that, under the scheme submitted, the revenue would probably not exceed 660.[292]
Notwithstanding this unfavourable anticipation, the government gave its assent to the scheme agreed upon by the other colonies, and the rate of postage on letters exchanged with other colonies became threepence per half ounce, while the charge on letters exchanged within the island remained twopence per half ounce.
FOOTNOTES:
[284] _Can. Arch._, G. series v. 126 (August 18, 1846).
[285] Cardwell to postmaster general, June 10, 1846, and accompanying papers (Br. P.O. Transcripts).
[286] _Journals of Assembly_, N.S., 1847.
[287] _Journals of Assembly_, Canada, 1849, App. B.B.B.
[288] _Journals of Assembly_, N.S., 1848.
[289] _Journals of Assembly_, Canada, 1849, App. B.B.B.
[290] _Ibid._, N.S., 1849
[291] _Imperial Statutes_, 12 and 13 Vict., c. 66.
[292] _Journals of Assembly_, P.E.I., 1850, App. H.
[Illustration: WILLIAM HENRY GRIFFIN, C.M.G.
(_Deputy Postmaster General_ 1857-1888)]
CHAPTER XVI
Provincial administration of the post office--Reduced postage--Railway mail service--Arrangements with United States.
The several provinces took over the post offices within their territories in 1851, Canada on the 6th of April, and Nova Scotia and New Brunswick three months later. The postmaster general of Canada was made a member of the executive council--the provincial cabinet--from the beginning. The postmaster general of Nova Scotia was never a member of the council, but administered the department as a subordinate official.
In New Brunswick, the department was administered on the same plan until 1855, when the postmaster general was made a member of the government.
During the period of separate provincial administrations, which continued until 1867, when they were merged in the post office department of the dominion of Canada, the record is on the whole one of steady uneventful progress. Postal accommodations were extended, always as occasion demanded, and seldom as immediate prospective revenues warranted, with the result that the expenses generally outran the revenues. This condition, however, caused little or no discontent, as the provincial governments realized, as the British government could not, that on the efficiency of the postal service depended in no small measure the welfare of their people.
Stayner, in his valedictory to the postmasters of Canada, took credit for the thriving and effective state in which he left the post office.
He believed that the improvements had fully kept pace with the growth of the country during the period of his administration. In that period, he pointed out, the increase in the number of post offices, amount of revenue, and in the number of miles annually travelled with the mails was more than six hundred per cent., a measure of progress not exceeded by any public institution within the province.
Stayner's words contained no more than the truth. When he entered on the office of deputy postmaster general he brought with him considerable experience as a subordinate in the service. He gained early, and retained to the end, the esteem and confidence of his superiors in England, and if he lost popularity for a period in this country, it was because he saw the folly of trying to serve two masters.
No one perceived more keenly than Stayner the inadequacy of the accommodation he was permitted to extend to the rapidly expanding settlements of the country; and no one could be more persevering in bringing the facts to the attention of the postmaster general. The contrast between the mail service on the north and south side of lake Ontario affected him, as it did the people of Kingston and Toronto, and he risked the regard of St. Martins-le-Grand by expressing sympathy with the general feeling. The postal accommodation, which did not hold out the prospect of, at least, self-maintenance, the authorities there did not desire to have brought to their notice.
While sharing the general sense of the necessity of postal communication in many parts of the country, Stayner took on himself the blame that they were not provided. Fortunately for him, he was abundantly able to take care of himself. By attaching himself to the government party he earned a measure of the odium, which fell on them. But he entrenched himself against too violent attack, and secured champions whom the British government would willingly listen to. He managed to secure a very large income from obnoxious perquisites, but it would seem from later developments that this was rather a matter of good fortune, than of any deliberate effort on his part.
The postmaster general and the colonial secretary had the strongest objections to these perquisites, but when they sought the means to get rid of them, they tried for some years in vain. The perquisites would fall to somebody, since they were of the appurtenances of that position.
That Stayner served the country, as well as his relations with the department in England would permit, admits of no doubt. William Lyon Mackenzie, who abhorred the post office and all its ways, was fain to concede that Stayner was the man, whom, of all he knew, he would most readily support for the position of deputy postmaster general.
With how vigorous a hand the postmaster general of Canada set about his task of providing adequate postal accommodation for the country, may be judged from the fact that the number of post offices which in 1851 was six hundred and one, was increased to eight hundred and forty-four during the first twelve months.[293] The system was extended in Canada as far west as Kincardine. The courier services to Sarnia and Goderich on lake Huron were made daily, as was that to Bytown (afterwards Ottawa).
Within five years the number of post offices had risen to one thousand three hundred and seventy-five; and in 1861, ten years after the postal service was taken over by the Canadian government, the number had been augmented to one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five offices, practically threefold the number in operation in 1851. When Canada entered confederation it took into the postal system of the dominion two thousand three hundred and thirty-three post offices.
The people of Canada responded with great readiness to the invitation to use the post office, which was offered through the reduction in the charges. When the Canadian post office was taken over, the rates varied according to the distance letters were carried. The postmaster general estimated that they yielded on the average ninepence a letter. The reduction to threepence was, therefore, a diminution of two-thirds.
It is noteworthy how completely fulfilled was the prediction that the low rates would so increase the number of letters carried that, in a short time, the revenue, which was certain to fall for the moment, would recover itself and return to the figures of 1851. For the year ending April 1851, the last year of the high rates, the revenue was $335,208.
In the following year, with the reduction of the rate to one-third of what it had been, the revenue fell to $239,608. But it was observed that the number of letters posted had increased by over fifty per cent.
In 1855 the effect of the reduction, coupled with the extension of the facilities to the public, was to produce a revenue of $368,168. Ten years after the great reduction in the rates the revenue had risen to $683,035, and at the time of entering confederation it was $914,784.
Among the most important of the facilities introduced in 1851 were postage stamps, the values being threepence, sixpence, and one shilling.
Curiously enough, the obvious advantages of postage stamps did not strike the people at the time. This is in large measure accounted for by the fact that the use of stamps involved a change in attitude on the question--who should pay the postage.
The old theory was that the service rendered to an individual by the post office should not be paid for until the letter was actually delivered. There was always a certain proportion of letters the postage of which was paid at the time they were handed in at the post offices, but the proportion was small. The regular practice was to allow the recipient of the letter to pay for it.
This attitude had to be overcome, and natural conservatism delayed the change for some time. Indeed, it was not until a fine in the shape of additional postage was imposed in cases where letters were not prepaid, that the practice was entirely changed.
The charges on the transmission of newspapers in Canada were among the matters that received early attention. There was a strong feeling throughout the colonies, that, in the absence of libraries, the high price of books precluded their general diffusion in the several communities, and it was therefore necessary that newspapers, the only remaining means for extending public information should be distributed at the cost of the government.
In the agreement on the conditions, under which the several colonies should assume the administration of their post offices, it was stipulated that, while threepence should be the charge on letters, and one-halfpenny on newspapers, the several legislatures should have the power to provide for the free circulation of newspapers through the post offices.