The History of the Post Office in British North America

by William Smith

Provincial administration of the post office—Reduced postage—Railway mail service—Arrangements with United States.

The several provinces took over the post offices within their territories in 1851, Canada on the 6th of April, and Nova Scotia and New Brunswick three months later. The postmaster general of Canada was made a member of the executive council—the provincial cabinet—from the beginning. The postmaster general of Nova Scotia was never a member of the council, but administered the department as a subordinate official. In New Brunswick, the department was administered on the same plan until 1855, when the postmaster general was made a member of the government.

During the period of separate provincial administrations, which continued until 1867, when they were merged in the post office department of the dominion of Canada, the record is on the whole one of steady uneventful progress. Postal accommodations were extended, always as occasion demanded, and seldom as immediate prospective revenues warranted, with the result that the expenses generally outran the revenues. This condition, however, caused little or no discontent, as the provincial governments realized, as the British government could not, that on the efficiency of the postal service depended in no small measure the welfare of their people.

Stayner, in his valedictory to the postmasters of Canada, took credit for the thriving and effective state in which he left the post office. He believed that the improvements had fully kept pace with the growth of the country during the period of his administration. In that period, he pointed out, the increase in the number of post offices, amount of revenue, and in the number of miles annually travelled with the mails was more than six hundred per cent., a measure of progress not exceeded by any public institution within the province.

Stayner's words contained no more than the truth. When he entered on the office of deputy postmaster general he brought with him considerable experience as a subordinate in the service. He gained early, and retained to the end, the esteem and confidence of his superiors in England, and if he lost popularity for a period in this country, it was because he saw the folly of trying to serve two masters.

No one perceived more keenly than Stayner the inadequacy of the accommodation he was permitted to extend to the rapidly expanding settlements of the country; and no one could be more persevering in bringing the facts to the attention of the postmaster general. The contrast between the mail service on the north and south side of lake Ontario affected him, as it did the people of Kingston and Toronto, and he risked the regard of St. Martins-le-Grand by expressing sympathy with the general feeling. The postal accommodation, which did not hold out the prospect of, at least, self-maintenance, the authorities there did not desire to have brought to their notice.

While sharing the general sense of the necessity of postal communication in many parts of the country, Stayner took on himself the blame that they were not provided. Fortunately for him, he was abundantly able to take care of himself. By attaching himself to the government party he earned a measure of the odium, which fell on them. But he entrenched himself against too violent attack, and secured champions whom the British government would willingly listen to. He managed to secure a very large income from obnoxious perquisites, but it would seem from later developments that this was rather a matter of good fortune, than of any deliberate effort on his part.

The postmaster general and the colonial secretary had the strongest objections to these perquisites, but when they sought the means to get rid of them, they tried for some years in vain. The perquisites would fall to somebody, since they were of the appurtenances of that position.

That Stayner served the country, as well as his relations with the department in England would permit, admits of no doubt. William Lyon Mackenzie, who abhorred the post office and all its ways, was fain to concede that Stayner was the man, whom, of all he knew, he would most readily support for the position of deputy postmaster general.

With how vigorous a hand the postmaster general of Canada set about his task of providing adequate postal accommodation for the country, may be judged from the fact that the number of post offices which in 1851 was six hundred and one, was increased to eight hundred and forty-four during the first twelve months.[293] The system was extended in Canada as far west as Kincardine. The courier services to Sarnia and Goderich on lake Huron were made daily, as was that to Bytown (afterwards Ottawa).