| Rs. | A. | P. | ||||
| Not exceeding | £2 | 0 | 8 | 0 | ||
| Exceeding | £2 | but not exceeding | £5 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| " | £5 | " " | £7 | 1 | 8 | 0 |
| " | £7 | " " | £10 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
For Canada the rates of commission were doubled.
In 1884 the Telegraphic Money Order system was introduced, with a charge of Rs.2 for the telegram exclusive of the money order commission upon the amount to be remitted. The charge was so high that it was thought safe to allow a money order up to Rs.600 in value to be sent by this means. The anomaly thus existed of having Rs.150 as the limit of an ordinary money order and Rs.600 as the limit of a telegraphic money order. The rule prohibiting more than four money orders daily being sent by the same remitter to the same payee, besides being quite unnecessary, proved no safeguard whatsoever. In actual practice the name of the remitter was not entered in the money order receipt, so that the post office of issue had no means of knowing how many money orders were sent by the same remitter, unless they were all presented at the same time. There was really no necessity to fix a low limit to the amount of a money order, as the whole procedure was quite different from that previously followed by the treasuries. The old treasury rule was that the amount of money orders issued in favour of one person in a district treasury must not exceed Rs.500 in one day, but then the money order was like a cheque payable to bearer and the paying treasury had no knowledge of the time at which it would be presented. The Post Office, on the other hand, carried its own money orders and, if the office of payment was short of funds, it could hold back the money order until funds were obtained, and do so without the knowledge of the payee. These arguments prevailed, and in 1889 the restrictions were removed. The maximum value of an ordinary money order was raised to Rs.600, and no limit was placed upon the number which could be issued in favour of any one person. At the same time the rates were modified as follows:—
| Rs. | A. | P. | |
| Not exceeding Rs.10 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Exceeding Rs.10, but not exceeding Rs.25 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| Exceeding Rs.25—4 annas for each | |||
| complete sum of 25 and 4 annas | |||
| for the remainder, provided that, | |||
| if the remainder did not exceed | |||
| Rs.10, the charge would be 2 annas. |
On the 1st April, 1902, after a great deal of pressure from all classes of the community, Government reduced the commission upon a money order not exceeding Rs.5 to 1 anna.
The extension of the money order system to the payment of land revenue was first tried in the Benares Division of the North-West Provinces at the suggestion of Rai Bahadur Salig Ram, Postmaster-General, in the year 1884, and proved an immediate success. In eleven months, 13,914 land revenue money orders were sent, the gross value of which amounted to Rs.3,35,904. The system was a great advantage to small proprietors who lived at a distance from the Government Collecting Stations. They found that the use of the ordinary money order for payment of revenue dues was not acceptable to the subordinate revenue officials, who suffered the loss of considerable perquisites thereby. Such remittances were generally refused on some pretext or other, either because they did not contain the correct amount due or else because the exact particulars required by the Land Revenue Department were not given on the money order form. To meet this difficulty a special form of money order was devised and the co-operation of District Collectors was invited. In 1886 the system was extended to the whole North-West Provinces except Kumaon, and a beginning was also made in ten districts of Bengal. The action of the Post Office was fully justified by results, and revenue money orders were quickly introduced into the Punjab, Central Provinces and Madras. In Madras they proved a failure, and were discontinued in 1892 after a three years' trial. The system was again introduced in 1906, but it still does not show any great signs of popularity, the figures for 1917-18 being 10,293 revenue money orders for Rs.1,29,400.
Rent money orders were first tried in the North-West Provinces in March, 1886; an experiment was also made in Bengal in October, 1886, and the system was extended to the Central Provinces in 1891. Except in parts of Bengal and the North-West Provinces, now known as the United Provinces, the payment of rent by money orders has never been popular, and the reason is not far to seek. Rent in India is usually in arrears and, whenever a tenant pays money to a zemindar (landholder), the latter can credit it against any portion of the arrears that he thinks fit. With a rent money order, the case is different, the money order itself and the receipt which has to be signed by the zemindar indicate exactly the period for which rent is being paid, and to that period it must be devoted. This is the ordinary ruling of the rent courts and does not at all meet the wishes of zemindars who want to have their tenants in their power. Besides this important factor, there is the rooted objection of all subordinates, whether they be government servants or zemindars' agents, to be deprived of the time-honoured offerings which all self-respecting tenants should make to the landlord's servants at the time of paying their rents, and the appearance of a postman with a sheaf of money orders, however punctual the payments may be, is hardly an adequate substitute for the actual attendance of the tenants themselves.
In 1886 the plan of paying money orders at the houses of payees was adopted and proved very satisfactory. India was indebted to Germany for the idea, which not only conferred a great boon on the public but tended to reduce the accumulations of cash at post offices and to accelerate the closure of money order accounts.
In Appendix "E" is given the number and value of inland money orders issued in India from 1880-81 to 1917-18, and the steady increase from year to year is a certain sign of the great public need which the Indian money order system satisfies, and of the confidence that is placed in it.
On the 1st October, 1884, the public was given the opportunity of employing the telegraph for the transmission of inland money orders, and during the first six months of the scheme 5788 money orders for Rs.3,75,000 were issued. The cost of Rs.2 for the telegram and ½ per cent for money order commission was a decided bar to the popularity of the telegraphic money order, which at first was chiefly used in Burma and Madras owing to the isolated positions of those provinces. In 1887 the Post Office relinquished its commission on orders for sums not exceeding Rs.10, and the telegraph charge was reduced to R.1. This led to an immediate increase of traffic, the number of such orders in 1887-88 being 45,417 compared with 18,540 in the previous year, more than half of which were issued from Burma. In 1917-18 the total number of telegraphic money orders issued was 875,000 and the value Rs.6,22,00,000 of which about three-fifths came from Burma. With the improvements in railway communication in India which are continually taking place, the pre-eminence of Burma in the matter of telegraphic money orders is likely to continue owing to her isolation and the largely expanding trade of Rangoon.