The Post Office Act 1867 made the domestic registration of letters containing valuables compulsory, the Postmaster General being empowered to prescribe and enforce regulations "in respect to the registration by the officers of the Post Office of letters unquestionably containing money or other valuable enclosure when posted without registration by the senders of the same,
and to imposing a rate of two cents registration charge upon such letters."[192]
The Report for 1868, which was the first of the Dominion of Canada, gave the statistics of registered letters as 640,000 for Ontario and Quebec (the former Province of Canada), 24,700 for New Brunswick, and 40,000 for Nova Scotia, a total registered correspondence of 704,700. The next year's Report especially notes the increase in the use of the registration system, the total having advanced to 850,000 pieces, while the Report for 1870 records an even million.
Finally in the Report for 1872, we find the first hint of special stamps for registration purposes, as follows:—
It seems expedient to adopt some distinctive postage stamp to be used only in prepayment of the Registration charge, both to make it clear that this charge has been duly paid and accounted for in every case, and to diminish the risk which is occasionally felt at points of distribution of omitting to carry on the Registration in cases where the ordinary Registration postmark is not as distinct and calculated to arrest attention as it should be.
It has always been the policy of the Canadian Post Office to admit letters to Registration at a low rate of charge for the additional security thus given, so as to leave no adequate motive, on the score of cost, for sending valuable letters through the mails unregistered; and, doubtless, the very large proportion of such letters offered for registration demonstrates a gratifying measure of success in attaining the desired object.
We have here the reason for the extremely cheap domestic registry fee of 2 cents—a reason which might, possibly with profit, even, enter more deeply into the calculations and published rates of even larger countries than Canada.
The above recommendation did not bear immediate fruit, but after a delay of three years the suggested special stamps made their appearance on November 15, 1875. The Report of that year says of them:—
Registration stamps have been issued, to be used by the public in prepaying the registration charges on letters passing within the Dominion, or to the United Kingdom or United States, each destination being distinguished by a different colour in the stamp, as well as by a variation in the amount of registration charge and corresponding value of the stamp.
There is a red stamp of the value of two cents for prepayment of the registration charges on letters within the Dominion.