The Bristol Royal Mail Part 7

"The Board have placed the subject of the Commissioners' enquiry in the several points of view which appear to them fairly to arise upon the investigation and consideration it has received, and they shall feel sincere gratification if, on this or any future occasion, they should in the least degree prove of a.s.sistance to a department of Government, or should otherwise by their exertions conduce to the advancement of the public interests.

"THOMAS STOCK, President.

July 7th, 1828."

A strong memorial (under the hand of Thomas Cookson, President) was forwarded to the Postmaster-General.

Francis Freeling, Secretary, in his reply for the Postmaster-General, refused to admit that the port of Bristol did afford the requisite facilities for a station for His Majesty's packets. When the projected works were carried out the matter would be reconsidered by the Government.

Replying further, Mr. Freeling, on the 2nd March, alluded to the impossibility of despatching the mails at a fixed time every day in the year, and said that that presented insurmountable objections to the choice of Bristol as a station for His Majesty's packets. He said that the first requisite for a packet station was that the port should afford the means for embarking and landing the mails at all times of tide and under all circ.u.mstances of weather.

The Bristol Dock Directors and a Standing Committee of the Society of Merchants considered the matter, but did not see their way to press it under the chilling response received from the Postmaster-General.

The Board did not give up the case, for in the Annual Report 28th January, 1833, it was stated that the proposition for establishing at this port a mail packet station by steam vessels to the South of Ireland was being diligently pursued, and that the House of Commons having appointed a Committee to enquire into the communications between England and Ireland, a favourable opportunity was presented of again urging the advantages Bristol port was calculated to afford.

The numerous appeals, representations, and enquiries did not result in the manner desired, and to this day the mails from the South of Ireland for Bristol and its district follow the same route _via_ Waterford and Milford Haven, the only difference being that from the latter port to Bristol the service is carried on by rail instead of by road.

Bristol became a mail packet station eventually, as steamships carried the American mails between this port and New York for several years, commencing in 1837, the year of Her Most Gracious Majesty's accession to the throne. The _Great Western_, constructed under the direction of Brunel, the famous engineer of the Great Western Railway, was chiefly used in the service.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE "GREAT WESTERN."

THE FIRST STEAMER WHICH CARRIED MAILS FROM BRISTOL TO NEW YORK.]

On the 31st May, 1838, writing from 19 Trinity Street, Bristol, Mr.

Claxton, managing director to the _Great Western_--which was then, nearly due,--asked the Bristol postmaster whether a consignee at New York might charge the foreign postage on letters to parts on the Continent with which no arrangement, similar to that then existing between France and England, had been made. The idea was that such letters might be put into a separate bag, and the foreign postage from Bristol be handed over to the local Post Office. He wrote that notice had been given by the Chamber of Commerce of Liverpool that masters of ships need not send anything but letters to the Post Office on arrival.

Mr. Todd Walton replied on the next day to the effect that the agent should only direct letters to Mr. Claxton's care to forward from such persons as he could refer to in case of errors. Then followed a long communication from Mr. Walton to Colonel Maberly, Secretary to the Post Office, the gist of which was that a difficulty existed in preventing illegal conveyance of ship letters; that the commanders of vessels did not receive money with letters to any great extent; that the public prints stated that 1,600 letters were received on board the _Great Western_ besides those sent from the Post Office; that an immense number of letters was collected at the Great Western office; and that as the _Great Western_ and _Syrius_ were regularly established, and other vessels of the same description were preparing, unless some means were taken to protect the revenue, it could not fail to suffer very considerably.

The _Great Western_ brought to England 5,500 post letters and 1,770 post papers, which, had that conveyance not been offered, would most likely have been sent by private ships. Mr. Walton conceived it would be very advantageous to the revenue to contract with those superior vessels to carry mails, so as to render the latter chargeable with package rates; and he submitted that ship letter mails should be made up at Bristol, the same as at London and Liverpool, for all vessels leaving this port.

About 5,500 ship letters were brought to the Bristol Post Office annually, and he had no doubt that vast numbers were carried from Bristol in the same manner; but with the exception of those by the _Great Western_, no mails had ever been made up here for foreign countries. The Secretary, replying for the Postmaster-General, said it did not appear to Lord Lichfield that cognizance need be taken of the suggestion conveyed in Mr. Claxton's letter of the 31st May, for the transmission through this country of letters from the United States addressed to those foreign countries upon which the postage must be paid here before they can be forwarded to their destination. The Post Office could have no objection to such letters being addressed to the care of Mr. Claxton or any other agent in this country who would pay the foreign postage and send them on to their destinations. The letters in question, would, of course, be subject, so far as the Post Office was concerned, to the ship letter rate to Bristol, and when re-posted, to the inland and foreign rates forward.

The postmaster's proposition for making up mails to be forwarded by the steam vessels charged with packet rates of postage was out of the question; but with regard to making up ship letter bags for foreign countries, so strangely neglected at this great port, the postmaster was to embrace every opportunity in his power of despatching ship letter bags by sailing as well as by steam vessels. There is no official record, however, of any such ship letter mails having been forwarded from Bristol.

In the year 1841 a Royal Commission was appointed to enquire into the question of the most suitable port for the embarkation and debarkation of the West Indian Mails. The committee consisted of Mr. Freshfield, Lord Dalmeny, Lord Viscount Ingestre, Captain Pech.e.l.l, Captain Duncombe, Mr. Chas. Wood, Sir Thomas Cochrane, Mr. John O'Connell, Mr. Cresswell, Lord Worsley, Mr. Gibson Craig, Mr. De Horsey, Mr. Oswold, Mr. Richard Hodgson, and Mr. Philip Miles, who was prominent as representing Bristol. Much evidence was given in favour of the ports of Bristol, Dartmouth, Devonport, Falmouth, Plymouth, Portsmouth, and Southampton respectively. The case of Bristol was strongly supported by Lieut. J.

Hosken, R.N., commander of the _Great Western_ screw steamer from Bristol to New York, and Lieut. C. Claxton, R.N., the Bristol Harbour Master.

The princ.i.p.al reasons put forward in favour of our old port were: that the Bristol Channel was navigable at all states of the tide and in all weathers; that there was good anchorage in the Kingroad; and that although Bristol was not quite so near to Barbadoes, the first island of call, as some of her rival ports, yet it admitted of quicker transmission of mails between London and the northern towns than any other English port. The arguments in favour of the Bristol port were not strong enough to induce the committee to report in its favour.

From the "forties," when the American mail service was withdrawn from Bristol, no foreign or colonial mails left the port until the autumn of 1898, when Mr. Alfred Jones, the enterprising managing director of the firm of Messrs. Elder, Dempster & Co., made arrangements for carrying private ship mails from Avonmouth to Montreal by a weekly service of steamers. The Bristol merchants found it convenient to make use of this ship mail system for the conveyance of their invoices, bills of lading, and advices, as, by travelling in the same ship as the goods which they related to, their delivery in time to be of use in connection with the ship's load was ensured. The first vessel to carry such a ship mail was the s.s. _Montcalm_.

When it was in antic.i.p.ation at the Bristol Post Office that the ship mail service might be resumed in 1899 on the breaking up of the ice in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, there came a cablegram from the Canadian Government intimating that a contract had been entered into with Messrs.

Elder, Dempster and Co.; and, heigh presto! Avonmouth at once became the port of departure and arrival of the steamers carrying the direct Canadian mails. The suddenness of the event naturally created quite a stir after Bristol had been so long waiting, and the mail services outwards and inwards were watched with close attention by the public.

The first steamer to run under the new contract was the s.s. _Monterey_.

She left Avonmouth on the 23rd July, but time had not admitted of arrangements being made for her to carry the mails from Avonmouth, which were therefore picked up at Queenstown. The s.s. _Ikbal_ took the next trip, leaving Avonmouth on the 30th July. The parcels from the whole of the kingdom, including Ireland, were circulated on Bristol, and made up here in direct mails for Montreal, Quebec, Hamilton, Kingston, Toronto, Winnipeg, Prince Edward Island, Hawaii, St. Pierre and Miquelon, Nova Scotia, British Columbia, Kobe, Nagasaki, and Yokohama. The notice to the Bristol Post Office was very short, but the necessary arrangements were smartly made to meet the emergency. Mr. Kislingbury, the divisional superintendent of the Great Western Railway, ever ready to heartily co-operate with the local Post Office, had a special tender placed in readiness for the reception of the mails at Temple Meads and they were despatched by the 9.50 a.m. train to Avonmouth. On the part of the Dock authorities, the general manager, Mr. F. B. Girdlestone, had provided an engine to take the brake-vans containing the parcel mails direct from the Docks junction to the pier head. The system was fully tried, for the mails had to be taken from the train to the steam-tug _Sea Prince_ to be conveyed to the steamer, which was moored in Kingroad, having arrived too late to enter the dock. The mails weighed close upon three tons, and were contained in fifty-five large hampers. In the following week the s.s. _Arawa_ (a sixteen-knot boat, 440 feet long) carried the mails, which were taken by train alongside the ship in dock; and which consequently, although five tons in weight, were put on board under much more favourable circ.u.mstances than in the preceding week, when the steamer had to lie out in the Kingroad. It is noteworthy that the _Arawa_ took out 400 emigrants.

[Ill.u.s.tration: R.M.S. "MONTEREY."

FIRST LINER IN THE NEW CANADIAN MAIL SERVICE.

_From a photograph by G. M. Roche, Esq., Dublin._]

Subsequent steamers used for carrying on the mail service were the _Montfort_, _Monteagle_, and _Montrose_.

The arrangements for the new service worked very smoothly from the outset, thanks in no small measure to Mr. Flinn, the local general manager for Messrs. Elder, Dempster & Co., who facilitated in every way the Post Office and Customs operations. The trial so far has proved that the use of Avonmouth as a port for the Canadian mail traffic is attended with advantages on this side of the ocean, but greater facilities for embarking and disembarking the mails at Avonmouth are absolutely necessary.

CHAPTER X.

POSTAL SERVICE STAFF; ITS COMPOSITION, DUTIES, RESPONSIBILITIES.--VOLUME OF WORK.

In 1855 the Bristol Post Office staff consisted of a postmaster and fifteen clerks, with sixty-four letter carriers. Over 1,500 people of all grades, including sub-postmasters and their a.s.sistants, are now employed; and the annual bill for salaries, wages, and allowances of men, women, and boys amounts to little short of 100,000. It will thus be seen that the Post Office ranks as one of the largest employers of labour in the western city.

The head office is centrally situated both for the receipt and despatch of the letter correspondence. It is not very far from a point known as "Tramway Centre," upon which the tram services of the city converge. It plays an important part with regard to the Bristol postal system, as out of a total of 833,000 letters posted weekly in the city delivery area--exclusive of 55,300 Clifton posted letters--221,000 letters are posted at the head office itself, and the total posted within a radius of a mile is 652,290, or more than three-fourths of the whole. In addition to the 888,000 letters posted weekly in Bristol city and Clifton, there are 108,000 letters posted in the suburban and rural districts. The posting every Sunday consists of 35,000 letters.

The greater extent to which the well-to-do cla.s.ses in Bristol use the post than their less fortunate brethren may be gathered from the fact that the average yield of letters, newspapers, etc., per day per box in the Clifton district is 128 per cent. higher than in Redland and Cotham, and 179 per cent. higher than in Redcliffe; and in the Redland and Cotham district 22 per cent. higher than in Redcliffe.

The mails are chiefly conveyed between the head office and the princ.i.p.al railway station by horsed carts.

About 7,000,000 "forward" letters--that is, letters neither posted nor delivered locally, but pa.s.sing through the Bristol Post Office--are dealt with annually.

The parcel post, started in 1883, has done well in Bristol. Nearly three-quarters of a million of parcels are posted in the district annually. The greater part of the parcel despatching duties is performed at a separate parcel office on the Temple Meads Railway Station premises. People often avail themselves of the parcel post for obtaining a regular weekly supply of produce. A joint of beef from Scotland, weighing just under eleven pounds, invariably reaches Bristol at the week end, and a package of b.u.t.ter from Dublin is observed every Friday in the Bristol parcel depot on its way to Weston-super-Mare.

The London mail is, naturally, the most important mail which leaves Bristol. In the course of the day fifty-five mail bags are forwarded, containing about 20,000 letters; the trains used being those leaving at 3.10 a.m., 7.50 a.m., 9.35 a.m., 11.40 a.m., 12.13 p.m., 1.54 p.m., 3.0 p.m., 3.43 p.m., 4.45 p.m., 7.22 p.m., and 12.45 a.m. So numerous are the London and "London forward" letters in the evening, that three clerks are engaged from 5.0 p.m. to midnight in sorting them. In the opposite direction fifty mail bags are received from London daily, containing about 30,000 letters. Birmingham comes next in the importance of exchange, thus: twelve mail bags go out daily, containing 5,500 letters, and ten bags come in, with 4,500 letters. The neighbouring city of Bath figures next, with ten outward mail bags daily, containing 4,200 letters, and ten inward bags, containing 2,700 letters. The same three cities also stand in the forefront in respect of the import and export of parcels, 870 parcels being received from London and 550 parcels sent thereto daily. Birmingham sends 190 parcels and takes a like number; whilst Bath sends 160 and takes in return 250 parcels daily.

The members of the permanent staff have fallen on better days than their predecessors of old times. They are granted holidays varying in periods according to rank, from the twelve working days allowed to the telegraph messengers to the month enjoyed by the superintending officers. Medical attendance is afforded gratuitously, and full pay is, as a rule, given during sick absence, and under special circ.u.mstances sick leave on full pay is allowed for six months, and a further six months on half-pay.

After that time, if there appears to be little or no chance of recovery, a pension or gratuity is given. The appointment of medical officer to the Post Office was in 1862 conferred upon Mr. F. Poole Lansdown, who has held the post ever since. For the last four years the average sick absence per year has been ten days for males and seventeen days for females per head; and during the last seven years the average mortality amongst the established officers of the Service has been two per annum.

Uniform and boots are provided by the Department for the postmen and telegraph messengers, at an annual cost of about 2,000.

Good-conduct stripes are the reward to all full-time postmen, established or unestablished, of unblemished conduct. A stripe is awarded after each five years' meritorious service, and each man is eligible for six stripes, each of which carry one shilling a week extra pay. The value of the stripes is taken into account in calculation of pensions.

Of the 1,500 persons of all grades alluded to there are in the postal department a superintendent, 24 superintending officers, and 154 male and 8 female clerks.

The selection of candidates for situations in the Bristol Post Office as sorting clerks and telegraphists, both male and female, was for many years vested entirely in the postmaster, and persons were given temporary employment without pa.s.sing any educational test as to their special fitness for Post Office employment. It so happened that not infrequently a clerk would be employed in a temporary capacity for some years, and finally be rejected by the Civil Service Commissioners on educational or medical grounds. In 1892, however, a special preliminary educational examination was inst.i.tuted. All candidates of respectable parentage, of good health and character, were allowed to sit at this examination, the successful ones being taken into the office and trained for appointment to the Establishment. The Civil Service Examination had, of course, to be undergone before an appointment could be obtained. In 1896 a new system was introduced, whereby a Civil Service certificate had to be obtained before a person was taken into the office. This obviated the necessity of holding the preliminary educational examination, but the postmaster still exercised the privilege of nominating candidates to the situations. The open compet.i.tive system of examination was commenced last year, and the appointments are now open to general compet.i.tion.

There is a term of probation in the Post Office, and details of the duties devolving on postal clerks may not be without interest to the Bristol public. The business, with its mult.i.tudinous ramifications, takes a long time to learn thoroughly. To become a perfect all-round postal clerk a man must possess intelligence, must be cool, fertile in expedient, have a retentive memory, and withal be quick and active. He must know how to primarily sort, sub-divide, and despatch letters. He must have a good knowledge of Post Office circulation and be able to bear in mind the names of the smallest places--hamlets, etc.--in the kingdom, the varying circulations for different periods of the day, and the rates of postage of all articles sent through the post. Be must be able to detect the short-paid letter, and to deal with the ordinary letter, the large letter, the unpaid, the registered, the foreign, the "dead," insufficiently addressed, the official, the fragile, the insured, the postcard (single and reply), the letter card, the newspaper, the book-packet, and the circular (the definition of which is very difficult). He is responsible for the correct sortation of every letter that he deals with, and he has to be expert in tying letters in bundles. He has to cast the unpaid postage and enter the correct account on the letter bill; take charge of registered letter bags and loose registered letters, and advise them on the letter bill; see to the correct labelling, tying, and sealing of the mail bags he makes up; check the despatch of mails on the bag list; dispose of his letters by a given time, the hours of the despatch of mails being fixed. In consequence, he often has to work under great pressure in order to finish in time. The postal clerk has to surcharge unpaid and insufficiently prepaid correspondence; to see that all postage stamps are carefully obliterated, that the rules of the different posts are not infringed; to attend to the regulations relating to official correspondence. He has to decipher imperfectly and insufficiently addressed correspondence, search official and other directories to trace proper addresses. In addition to all this he has in turn to serve at the public counter, and there attend to money order, savings bank, postal order, and other items of business of the kind.

As an ill.u.s.tration of the perspicacity of officers of the Post Office in the Western Division of the Kingdom and of the postmen of Bristol, may be cited the circulation through the post and prompt and safe delivery of a letter from Plymouth bearing as its only address the magic letters "W. G.," with cricket hat, stumps, and ball, so dear to the individual who bears the initials.

Delay in delivery of articles sent by post, however, not infrequently takes place in consequence of misdirection. A parcel was addressed to a reverend gentleman at "Publow Church, near Bristol," and as it could not be presented at the fine old structure itself, the postman took it to the adjoining vicarage, where, in the absence of the vicar, it was taken in by a servant upon the inference that it might be intended for some future visitor. It turned out, however, that the address was inaccurate, and that the parcel was actually intended for a village some miles from Bristol, on the other side, having for its name Pucklechurch.

Occasionally there is very slow transmission in these speedy days. A rather remarkable case occurred here of a postcard having occupied nearly eight years in travelling between Horfield Barracks and the premises of a firm in Stokes Croft,--a distance of less than two miles.

The missive was posted and stamped on the 10th July, 1890, and trace of it was lost until it turned up at Bournemouth and received the impression of the stamp of that office in April, 1898, whence it was sent to Bristol and delivered. There were no other marks to indicate its long detention.

Not infrequently the Post Office has to contend with difficulties arising from want of thought on the part of the trading community.

Recently there was a somewhat unusual occurrence at the Bristol Post Office. A sack containing samples of biscuits in small tin boxes was received. Around the tins flimsy paper was tied, on which the addresses were written. The paper had become so frayed in transit that scarcely a single wrapper was complete, and when the tins were turned out of the sack there were showers of small pieces of paper like a snowstorm. In order that the samples might reach their destinations, the addresses were, as far as practicable, re-copied, and the samples sent out.

Nearly every one of the 500 packets received was then sent out for delivery without delay, no doubt to the astonishment of those who received the biscuits in envelopes from the Returned Letter Office.