[311] P.M.G.'s report to council, December 7, 1863 (Sess. Papers, Canada, 1864, No. 28).
[312] Journals of Assembly, Canada, 1860, App. 14.
CHAPTER XIX
Postal service of Manitoba, the North-West provinces and British Columbia—Summary of progress since Confederation.
When Sir Adams Archibald, the first lieutenant governor of the newly-formed province of Manitoba, reached Winnipeg in the summer of 1870 for the purpose of taking over his government, he made a survey of the administrative system which he found there.
The postal arrangements were very simple.[313] There were but four post offices in the province, and three mail routes. The principal route, that upon which the settlement depended for its communication with the outer world, ran down the Red River from Pembina, on the border, to Winnipeg. The second followed the river down as far as St. Andrew's; and the third connected the town of Portage La Prairie with Winnipeg, by a weekly-courier service along the Assiniboine river. The mails on the other two routes were carried twice each week.
The carriage of the mails between Pembina and Winnipeg was originally a private enterprise, but was afterwards assumed by the government of Assiniboia. There was a postage charge of one penny on all letters and of one-halfpenny on all newspapers, passing in and out of the territory, in addition to the postage due for conveyance between Pembina and the place of origin or destination.
The system in the settlement was not recognized by the United States government, and letters were not considered as regularly posted until they were deposited in Pembina post office. Consequently the only postage stamps were those of the United States, which were sold in the post offices of the settlement.