* * * * * CHANGES IN POSTAGE RATES UNDER AUTHORITY OF POST OFFICE ACT 1889. The rate of postage upon Letters posted in Canada, addressed to places within the Dominion or in the United States, will be 3 cents per ounce instead of 3 cents per half ounce as heretofore. Upon Drop Letters posted at an Office from which letters are delivered by Letter Carrier, the postage rate will be 2 cents per ounce, instead of 1 cent per half ounce. The rate of postage upon Drop Letters, except in the Cities where free delivery by Letter Carrier has been established, will be 1 cent per ounce. The fee for the Registration of a letter or other article of mail matter, will be five cents upon all classes of correspondence passing within the Dominion. For the present and until further instructed, the registration fee may be prepaid by using the 2 cent Registration Stamps and Postage Stamps to make up the amount. Letters insufficiently prepaid will be charged double the deficiency as heretofore, provided at least a partial prepayment has been made. Letters posted wholly unpaid will be sent to the Dead Letter Office for return to the writer. POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT, JOHN G. HAGGART. OTTAWA, 8th MAY, 1889 _Postmaster General_ [115] 52^o Vict. Chap. 20. The Act also made another change, not noted in the circular, by which section 24 of _The Post Office Act_, 1875, which provided a rate of 1 cent per 4 ounces on printed matter, seeds, etc., and samples of merchandise, was amended so as to limit the weight of printed matter to 2 ounces for the 1 cent rate. The 1889 Report also chronicles the "removal of the British American Bank Note Co. from Montreal to Ottawa," a fact which we have already commented upon at length in its results upon the stamps issued after the transfer.[116] [116] See page 128. In 1890 we find that "the complaints which were so prevalent some time since, of the want of adhesiveness in the postage stamps have almost entirely ceased. It is hoped, therefore, that the efforts of the manufacturer to remove the cause of complaint have been successful." And again in 1891: "Complaints of defective mucilage would be far less frequent if the public would kindly bear in mind that it is the _envelope_ of a letter, or the _cover_ of a packet, and _not the postage stamp_, which should be moistened when stamps are affixed in prepayment of postage. When a stamp is passed over the tongue the mucilage is frequently almost wholly removed." They should have had these instructions engraved on the margins of the plates, as did the British authorities with the old one penny black!