Post Masters are informed that the transfer of the Post Office in the Provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia to Provincial control, will take place on the 6th July next, and that from that date the uniform rate of 3d. per 1/2 ounce will form the sole charge on a Letter transmitted between any place in Canada and any place in New Brunswick, or Nova Scotia. Pre-payment will be optional. On the 30th August, 1851, the Canadian Parliament passed an _Act to Amend the Post Office Act_. The only section of any particular interest to us is the following:-- 14^o & 15^o Vict. Cap. LXXI. * * * * * XV. And be it enacted, That the Post Master General shall be authorized, whenever the same may be proper for the accommodation of the public in any city, to employ Letter Carriers for the delivery of letters received at the Post Office in such city, excepting such as the persons to whom they are addressed may have requested, in writing addressed to the Postmaster, to be retained in the Post Office, and for the receipt of letters at such places in the said city as the Postmaster General may direct, and for the deposit of the same in the Post Office; and for the delivery by Carrier of each letter received from the Post Office, the person to whom the same is delivered shall pay not exceeding One Penny, and for the delivery of each newspaper and pamphlet One Halfpenny, and for every letter received by a Carrier to be deposited in the Post Office, there shall be paid to him, at the time of the receipt, not exceeding One Half-penny:--all of which receipts, by the Carriers in any city, shall, if the Postmaster General so direct, be accounted for to the Postmaster of the said city, to constitute a fund for the compensation of the said Carriers, and to be paid to them in such proportions and manner as the Postmaster General may direct. But in the meantime the postage stamps, which will now be our main study, were issued to the public, and we will therefore turn back to the period of their birth and trace their history, together with the development of the post that accompanies it, through the nearly sixty years that have since elapsed. CHAPTER II THE ISSUE OF 1851 According to all good catalogues, the date of the first issue of stamps for Canada is the year 1851. If we find some more precise statement put forth in a special article on the subject, the date is apt to be given as the 6th April, 1851. If we go back into the dusty archives of the Canadian Post Office Department, we find the circular announcing the forthcoming stamps is dated a fortnight later than the hitherto supposed correct date for their issue. We reproduce it here in its entirety:-- DEPARTMENT ORDER [NO. 4.] POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT, TORONTO, _21st April_, 1851. _Stamps for the pre-payment of Postage on Letters._