The History of the Post Office in British North America

by William Smith

Within five years the number of post offices had risen to one thousand three hundred and seventy-five; and in 1861, ten years after the postal service was taken over by the Canadian government, the number had been augmented to one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five offices, practically threefold the number in operation in 1851. When Canada entered confederation it took into the postal system of the dominion two thousand three hundred and thirty-three post offices.

The people of Canada responded with great readiness to the invitation to use the post office, which was offered through the reduction in the charges. When the Canadian post office was taken over, the rates varied according to the distance letters were carried. The postmaster general estimated that they yielded on the average ninepence a letter. The reduction to threepence was, therefore, a diminution of two-thirds.

It is noteworthy how completely fulfilled was the prediction that the low rates would so increase the number of letters carried that, in a short time, the revenue, which was certain to fall for the moment, would recover itself and return to the figures of 1851. For the year ending April 1851, the last year of the high rates, the revenue was $335,208. In the following year, with the reduction of the rate to one-third of what it had been, the revenue fell to $239,608. But it was observed that the number of letters posted had increased by over fifty per cent.

In 1855 the effect of the reduction, coupled with the extension of the facilities to the public, was to produce a revenue of $368,168. Ten years after the great reduction in the rates the revenue had risen to $683,035, and at the time of entering confederation it was $914,784.

Among the most important of the facilities introduced in 1851 were postage stamps, the values being threepence, sixpence, and one shilling. Curiously enough, the obvious advantages of postage stamps did not strike the people at the time. This is in large measure accounted for by the fact that the use of stamps involved a change in attitude on the question—who should pay the postage.

The old theory was that the service rendered to an individual by the post office should not be paid for until the letter was actually delivered. There was always a certain proportion of letters the postage of which was paid at the time they were handed in at the post offices, but the proportion was small. The regular practice was to allow the recipient of the letter to pay for it.

This attitude had to be overcome, and natural conservatism delayed the change for some time. Indeed, it was not until a fine in the shape of additional postage was imposed in cases where letters were not prepaid, that the practice was entirely changed.

The charges on the transmission of newspapers in Canada were among the matters that received early attention. There was a strong feeling throughout the colonies, that, in the absence of libraries, the high price of books precluded their general diffusion in the several communities, and it was therefore necessary that newspapers, the only remaining means for extending public information should be distributed at the cost of the government.

In the agreement on the conditions, under which the several colonies should assume the administration of their post offices, it was stipulated that, while threepence should be the charge on letters, and one-halfpenny on newspapers, the several legislatures should have the power to provide for the free circulation of newspapers through the post offices.

Nova Scotia abolished the charges altogether when she took over control; and New Brunswick took the same measure with the restriction that the newspapers to which the free conveyance would apply should not exceed two ounces in weight.