FOOTNOTES:

[206] The average weight of inland letters is now about a quarter of an ounce; that of colonial letters about a third of an ounce; of a foreign letter also about a quarter of an ounce. The average weight of newspapers is about three ounces, and of book-packets ten ounces.

[207] With charges extremely low, the Post-Office is victimized by all kinds of craftiness. The dodging of the proper payment is sometimes quite ludicrous. Hundreds of newspapers, for instance, are annually caught (and we may reasonably assume that thousands more escape) with short loving messages deftly inscribed between their paragraphs of type, or letters, different descriptions of light articles, and even money curiously imbedded in their folds. Almost everybody might tell of some adventure of this kind in his experience not only before penny-postage, but even after it.

[208] Moneys accruing to the revenue from lapsed orders are allowed to go into a fund for assisting officers of the Post-Office to pay their premiums on life assurance policies. No officer, however, can be assisted to pay for a policy exceeding 300l.

[209] This prohibition does not extend to Christmas gratuities.

[APPENDIX (C).]
INFORMATION RELATIVE TO THE APPOINTMENTS IN THE POST-OFFICE SERVICE.

All candidates for appointment in the Post-Office, whether to places in the gift of the Postmaster-General, or to those in provincial towns in the gift of the respective postmasters, must pass the stipulated examination prescribed by Government, and which is conducted under the auspices of the Civil Service Commissioners in London.

  1. Candidates for clerkships in the Secretary's Office, London, must pass an examination on the following subjects, viz.[210]:—
    1. Exercise designed to test handwriting and composition.
    2. Arithmetic (higher branches, including vulgar and decimal fractions).
    3. Precis.
    4. A Continental language, French or German, &c.[211]
  2. Candidates for general clerkships in the Metropolitan Offices are examined in[210]—
    1. Writing from dictation.
    2. Exercise to test orthography and composition.
    3. Arithmetic (higher rules).
  3. Candidates for the place of letter-carrier, &c.
    1. Writing from dictation.
    2. Reading manuscript.
    3. Arithmetic (elementary).
  4. All officers nominated to places in provincial offices must be examined by the postmaster, under the auspices of the Civil Service Commissioners, the examination-papers to be in all cases submitted to the Commissioners for inspection and judgment.
    1. Exercises designed to test handwriting and orthography.
    2. Arithmetic.
  5. For clerks, the examination consists in
    1. Writing from dictation.
    2. Reading manuscript.
    3. Arithmetic (of an easy kind).
  6. For sorters, letter-carriers, and stampers:—
    1. Writing their names and addresses.
    2. Reading the addresses of letters.
    3. Adding a few figures together.
  7. For messengers:—

No person under sixteen years of age is eligible for any situation in the Post-Office.