Towns > Edinburgh > 1846-1975 - Post Office Edinburgh and Leith directory > 1880-1881

C12
POSTAL DIRECTORY— RATES.
registered valuable articles are exposed to risk, and
offer a temptation which ought not to be afforded.
Inland letters which contain coin, watches, or
jewellery, even though they be posted without
registration, are treated as registered, and charged
on delivery with a registration fee of 8d. in addi-
tion to the ordinary postage ; and any such letters
which cannot be registered in time to be forwarded
by the mail for which they are posted, are detained
for the next despatch.
Letters containing coin, watches, or jewellery,
cannot be accepted for registration for any foreign
or colonial country in the Postal Union, and if
erroneously registered, they are returned to the
senders.
Letters containing coin for any of the British
colonies not in the Postal Union can be registered,
and if posted unregistered, they are treated as inland
letters under similar circumstances. The trans-
mission of any letters whatever containing gold
or silver money, jewels or precious articles, or
anything liable to Customs duties, through the
post to any country of the Postal Union is pro-
hibited. The laws of Costa Pica also forbid the
transmission by the post within that country of
letters or other packets containing coin, watches,
jewellery, or other articles of value which are
liable to Customs duties; and any such packets
if forwarded are liable to confiscation. Packets
containing jewellery or other articles of value
for the Cape of Good Hope or Queensland are
liable to be detained and not delivered to the
addresses until the Customs duties have been
paid, and letters or packets containing jewellery
(which is liable to Customs duties) sent through
the post to Victoria (Australia) are liable, with
their contents, to be forfeited.
Bylaw the Postmaster-General is not responsible
for the safe delivery of registered letters or packets,
but he is prepared to make good the contents of a
registered letter lost while passing through the
post to the extent of £2 in certain cases, provided —
1. That the sender of the letter duly observed
all the conditions of registration required ;
2. That the letter was securely enclosed in a
reasonably strong cover ; and if it con-
tained money, that it was enclosed in one of
the registered letter envelopes sold by the
Post Office for the purpose ;
3. That application was made to the Secretary
of the Post Office immediately the loss was
disco vered;
[When the complaint is that the contents of a
letter have been abstracted, the envelope
must accompany the application, otherwise
the question will not be entertained.]
4. That the Postmaster-General, whose decision
shall be final, is satisfied that the loss oc-
curred while the letter was in the custody of
the British Post Office, and was not caused
by any fault on the part of the sender.
No town letter-carrier is allowed to take a letter
to be registered ; but in country places where no
Post Office is neai', letters will be registered by
rural post messengers on their walks, whenever it
is practicable for them to do so.
RE-DIRECTION AND DELIVERY.
Every inland re-directed letter, post card, or
other postal packet, is liable to an additional
postage (at the prepaid rate) for each re-direction,
unless both the original and the second address
be within the delivery of the same Post Office,
and the re-direction be made by an officer of the
Post Office. Thus, on a paid or unpaid letter not
exceeding 1 oz. in weigfft, re-directed, either by
officer of the Post Office, or by any one else, to a
different delivery, an additional postage is levied
of one penny ; and if the weight be more than 1 oz.,
but less than 2 oz., of three halfpence, and so on.
An inland registered letter, when re-directed to
any place within the United Kingdom, is only
liable to the same additional charges as an ordi-
nary letter.
Letters, etc., received from a country of the
General Postal Union and re-directed to any
country within the Union, are not liable to any
additional charge, nor, if registered, to an addi-
tional registration fee; such, however, as have been
in the first instance addressed to a place in the
country where they were posted, are chargeable
on re-direction with the inland rate of the country
to which they are re-directed, but, if registered,
without additional fee.
Letters, etc., addressed from one part of the
United Kingdom to another, and then re-directed
to a country not in the Postal Union, are liable to
an additional colonial or foreign rate, and, if regis-
tered, to an additional fee for registration.
Letters, etc., received here from a country not
in the Postal Union, and re-directed to another
country not in the Postal Union, are liable to an
additional colonial or foreign rate, and, if regis-
tered, to an additional fee: if re-directed to some
place within the United Kingdom, they are liable
to an additional inland rate ; and, if re-directed to
any country of the Postal Union, they are liable
to the inland rate of that country. In the two
latter cases, letters, if registered, are not liable to
any additional fee.
Letters, etc., received from any country of the
Postal Union, and re-directed to a country not in
the Postal Union, are liable to an additional
colonial or foreign rate, and, if registered, to an
additional fee.
If an inland registered letter, when re-directed,
instead of being taken back to the Post Office to
be dealt with as a registered letter, is dropped into
the letter box as an ordinary letter (the word
'registered' not having been erased, or having
been erased in pencil only), it is surcharged with
a registration fee of eightpence, less the value of
any stamps affixed for registration.
Exceptions. — No charge for re-direction is made
on Government letters; nor is any charge for
re-direction made on newspapers from any
place abroad, unless they have been opened,
in which case the} 7 are liable to posta ge as books.
Further : Letters addressed to commissioned
officers in the army, navy, or ordnance, or
to schoolmasters or schoolmistresses in the
army, or non-commissioned officers, private
soldiers, or seamen employed on actual service
in any of Her Majesty's colonies, or on any
foreign station, and who, before receiving the
letters, may have started on their return home
or to another station, may be re-directed to
such officers, private soldiers, or seamen, etc.,
when these have removed upon service, and
will be delivered to them without any charge
for re-direction. The same privilege extends
to the letters of non-commissioned officers,
schoolmasters in the army (of all but the first
class'), schoolmistresses in the army, private
soldiers, and seamen (but to these only), re-
directed from one part of the United Kingdom
to another, or from the United Kingdom to
a place abroad, provided the original postage
is prepaid and the letters do not exceed half
an ounce in weight.
Notices of removal and applications for letters
to be re-directed must in all cases be duly signed