a full account of the matter was obtained from the Canadian postal authorities.
* * * * *
Post Office Department, Canada.
Office of the Superintendent of the Postage Stamp Branch.
Ottawa, 13th March, 1908.
Dear Sir:—Replying to your enquiry on the subject, as to the object of the post office mark consisting of a rather thick circle in which are the words "WAY LETTER" only, impressed upon a Canada postage stamp (3c.) similar to the one you enclosed, and which I herewith return, I find on enquiry that previous to the Confederation of the Dominion of Canada in 1867, there was in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick a regulation requiring mail couriers on the coach roads to accept letters for mailing, when these were offered them at a distance of not less than one or two miles from the nearest post office, to place them in a locked leather pouch provided for the purpose, and to post them at the first post office, the Postmaster of which was instructed to stamp these with the words "WAY LETTER." After Confederation this postmark lingered at some of the offices in the provinces named, when it was used for general cancellation purposes, if not for its primary purpose. It has now, however, wholly disappeared. Some think it lasted up to 1887 or 1891, but I am sorry I cannot furnish you with a more definite date as to its extinction.
Very truly yours,
E. P. STANTON, Superintendent.
It will be seen from this interesting letter that the postmark was in the first instance applied to the postage stamps of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and it is quite possible that only upon the stamps of these two provinces does it possess its full original significance. At the same time it does not follow that the regulations under which this cancellation was in use were immediately withdrawn with the Confederation of the Dominion of Canada; and it is more than probable that the custom based upon these regulations of accepting letters from the public at a distance from a post office, and applying the special obliteration, would continue long after that date, as it is evident that the use of the "Way Letter" postmark was never definitely prohibited by the Canadian postal authorities, or the date of its extinction would not have been in doubt. It is, however, quite certain that only a comparatively small number of letters would be entitled to receive this special mark, and its rarity is therefore indisputable.
Various new varieties came with the "small" cents issue and later, concerning which there is not so much of interest as in the earlier years of the postal service; we therefore pass them by, remarking only on the special "jubilee" machine cancellation which was used at Montreal in 1897. This was of the "flag" form and somewhat ornate, bearing the name "VICTORIA" and the dates "1837" and "1897."