Читать книгу The postage stamps and post cards of the North American colonies of Great Britain - Various Authors - Страница 7

Table of Contents

PLACE.	POSTMASTER.
New Westminster	W. R. Spalding, P.M.G.
Hope	A. S. Hall.
Douglas	Richard White.
Lillooet	T. H. Sharwood.
Yale	L. Agassiz.
Lytton	W. M. Cochran.
Ashcroft[A]	C. F. Cornwall.
Clinton	J. Champness.
Lake La Hache	W. Anderson.
Soda Creek	J. T. Sanay.
Quesnelmouth	F. Mevor.
Van Winkle	L. Cahn.
William’s Creek
Fort Shepherd	John Jane.
Columbia River, Big Bend District
Kootenay

[A] Ashcroft Post-office is the junction whence mail matter for Big Bend District will be forwarded.

On March 20th, 1867, an Act was passed which changed the currency of the colony to the decimal system of cents and dollars. On March 13th, in the same year, a new Postal Ordinance Act also became law. The following clauses are taken from the latter:

“IX. That on every Letter deposited in, or passing through, any Post-office in the Colony, and not exceeding half an ounce in weight, there shall be paid a postage according to the following scale; that is to say:

At or between Victoria, or any Post-office in Vancouver Island and New Westminster, or any Port in the Colony	5 Cents.
Between Vancouver Island or New Westminster and Clinton or Savana’s Ferry	12½ Cents.
Beyond those distances	25 Cents.
Between any two Post-offices above Yale, Hope, and Douglas	12½ Cents.

And for every additional half an ounce, or fraction of half an ounce beyond the above weight, there shall be paid on each such Letter an additional postage, according to the foregoing rates.

“X. That for every single Newspaper deposited in or passing through any Post-office in the Colony, there shall be paid a postage of Two Cents.”

I have been unable to find any notice in The Gazette of the issue of stamps surcharged with the value in cents, but they probably came into use at the time the above Act was passed, or shortly afterwards. In The Gazette for January 18th, 1868, there is a notice giving certain Postal rates in cents, and stating that “letters, papers, &c., for Great Britain, Canada, the United States, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland, must be prepaid in the Postage Stamps of the colony.” So it is evident, from the plural word used, the Cents stamps were then in use. This set, as we know, consisted of the following values: 2, 5, 10, 25, 50 cents and 1 dollar. It is possible all the values may not have appeared at once, but they are usually catalogued as one issue. As we see from Clause X. of the Postal Ordinance 1867 Act, the Two Cents value prepaid newspapers alone, which accounts for the stamp being so rarely met with postmarked. Looking at the list of letter rates in Clause IX., we should expect to find a Twelve and a Half Cents stamp, but, as we know, no such value was issued. Here again I can only suggest that the Twenty-five Cents may have been divided, or the Five Cents cut in two, and used in conjunction with a Ten Cents or two Five Cent stamps to make up the required rate. The stamps of British Columbia were withdrawn from use on July 20th, 1871, on the admittance of the colony into the Dominion of Canada. Mr. N. Shakespeare is the present Postmaster of Victoria.