A reduction in the charge of Book Post Packets, when not exceeding 4 oz., in weight between Canada and the United Kingdom, of one half the former rate has been made.
To facilitate the pre-payment of letters passing from Canada to England by the Canadian steamers, a new stamp bearing value at 6 pence sterling, or 7½ pence currency, being the Canadian Packet rate, has been secured and put in circulation.
A new stamp has also been introduced of the value of one halfpenny to serve as the medium for prepaying transient Newspapers.
The above is the only reference we have to the issue of the 7½d. stamp. The accounts for the fiscal year ending 30th September, 1857, contain the following item:—
"Rawdon, Wright and Co., Postage Stamps, £165.9.6"
which must include the cost of dies and plates for the two new values. There is no record of the date of issue of the 7½d. stamp, as far as our research has gone. The London Society's work[50] gives it as June 2, 1857, but upon what authority is not stated. It will be recalled that a stamp of this value was suggested, in company with the 10d., in the Postmaster General's report for 31st March, 1854, as being the reduced rate granted in that same month on letters sent "direct from a Provincial Port, Quebec or Halifax," to England. The Halifax Philatelist states:[51]—"This stamp was rendered necessary on account of the contract between the Canadian Government and the Allan Line of Steamers in regard to carrying the mails, and by which contract the postage was reduced." It hardly seems to have been very "necessary" when it took three years at least to bring the Postmaster General's suggestion to
a realization. Besides, the Allan Line steamers began their service over a year before the appearance of the stamp, and the rate it represented had even then been in force for two years, nor was it reduced for many years thereafter.
The Postmaster General's Report for 1856 says:—
The month of May, 1856, was marked by the first voyage to the St. Lawrence of the line of Canadian Mail Steamers, under the contract between Mr. Hugh Allan of Montreal, and the Provincial Government. These vessels have performed the service for which they were bound, with laudable punctuality, and have crossed the Atlantic at an average speed which compares successfully with the performances of the steamers of the Cunard and Collins lines from New York and Boston.
The average time of passage is given as—Westward, 12 days, 20½ hours; Eastward, 11 days, 2 hours.