Canada: Its Postage Stamps and Postal StationeryHowes, Clifton A. (Clifton Armstrong)
History
Canada: Its Postage Stamps and Postal Stationery
Howes, Clifton A. (Clifton Armstrong)
Postage stamps -- Canada; Postal stationery -- Canada
With reference to what is said about the Canadian
_officially-sealed_ label in the London Society's new book, I am
glad to be able to throw some light upon the question as to the
manner of its employment.
When I was in Canada last July [1889] I made special enquiries about
these labels, as there appeared to be some mystery about their use.
Everyone agreed that they were not placed upon _all_ letters opened
at the Dead Letter Office and returned to their senders, and no two
persons seemed to have quite the same theory as to the rules for
their employment or non-employment in any particular case. Even
gentlemen connected with the Post-Office at Halifax, such as Mr.
King and others, could give me no definite information. I therefore
determined to see what I could do at the head-quarters at Ottawa.
Fortunately, I was able, through a collector in an official
position, to obtain an introduction to the Deputy
Postmaster-General, who most kindly gave me the following
particulars, which show that the employment of the _officially
sealed_ labels is very restricted, thus accounting for their rarity.
Letters in Canada, as in the United States, very frequently have on
the outside the well-known notice containing the address of the
sender, and a request that the letter may be returned if not
delivered within a certain time. These of course are not opened at
the Dead Letter Office, and in fact, I think, are ordered not to be
sent there, but are returned direct from the office to which they
were originally addressed or from the head office of the district.
On the other hand, those that have no indication of the address of
the sender on the outside are sent to the Dead Letter Office, and
there necessarily opened; but neither of these classes thus properly
dealt with is considered to require the _officially-sealed_ label.
It is only if one of the former class, having the sender's name and
address on the outside, is sent to the Dead Letter Office and there
opened in _error_ that the _officially-sealed_ label is applied, to
show that such letter has been opened officially, and not by any
unauthorized person. Whether these pieces of gummed paper ever had a
more extended use or not I cannot say, but I was assured that the
above was the substance of the regulations as to their employment.
The Deputy Postmaster-General further stated that there had been so
many requests for specimens of these labels that the Department had
been obliged to make it a rule to turn a deaf ear to all of them.
In any case they are not _postage stamps_, properly speaking, at
all. They indicate neither postage paid nor postage due, but simply
that the letters to which they are attached have been opened by
proper authority, and they at the same time afford a means for
reclosing them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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