Her Majesty's Mails

[148] Postmaster General's Second Report. [149] See Appendix (A). [150] Head-office is the official term given to the independent post-towns, and such as are only subordinate to one of the three metropolitan offices. Sub-offices are, of course, under the head-offices. Receiving-offices, at which letters are received, but not delivered, are also under the authority of the head-office of the neighbourhood. Those post-offices at which money-orders are issued and paid are designated Money-order Offices, and include all the head-offices and a large number of sub-offices, and a few receiving-offices. Packet-Offices are those at which the regular mail-packets (ship-letters may be received or despatched. at any port) are received and from which they are despatched. London and Southampton are packet-offices for the Continental Mails, the East and West Indies, and South America. Liverpool, and Queenstown take the United States and Canada. The mail-packets for the Cape of Good Hope and the West Coast of Africa sail to and from Devonport. [151] For further information respecting these offices, see Appendix (D), Revenue Estimates; also, for a statement of the amount of postage collected in our largest towns, see Appendix (E). [152] The staff of the largest provincial offices usually consists of clerks, sorters, stampers, messengers, letter-carriers, and rural post-messengers. The clerks are now principally engaged on clerical duties, attending to the public on money-order business, &c. or in connexion with registered letters or unpaid-letter accounts. In offices where the staff is smaller, the clerks also engage in sorting and despatching letters. In many small country towns females are employed as clerks. The sorters are principally engaged in sorting duties. Stampers and messengers do duties such as their designations denote. Letter-carriers--the familiar "postmen" of every household--are almost exclusively engaged in delivering letters, &c. from door to door. Auxiliary letter-carriers are those only partially so employed, principally on the largest, or early morning delivery. Rural post-messengers is the official name for "country postmen," who make daily journeys among the villages and hamlets surrounding each town, delivering and taking up letters on their way.