Upon the transfer of the control of the Post Office Department in this Province, by the Imperial Post Office Authorities to the Provincial Government, on the 6th April, 1851, the number of Post Offices in operation was found to be 601--the number of miles of established Post Route, 7595--over which the annual transportation of the Mails was 2,487,000 miles--and the Gross Revenue raised under the authority of the Imperial Post Office, at the high tariff of rates then prevailing, had been for the year preceding the transfer £93,802 currency, including in that sum the collections in Canada of British Packet Postage, estimated to have amounted to £10,000 sterling. The Provincial Act of the 12th and 13th Vic. cap. 66, providing for the management of the Department after the transfer, reduced the Postage charges in Canada upon all letters passing between places within the Province, or within British North America generally, to a uniform rate of 3d. per 1/2 oz.; whereas under the tariff in force previous to the transfer, the average charge on each letter was computed to have been as nearly as possible 9d. per 1/2 oz.; the reduction therefore consequent upon the introduction of the uniform 3d. rate was equivalent to 2/3, or 66-2/3 per cent, on the former average letter Postage charge. The Postage charge on Box or Drop Letters, and the additional charge on letters delivered in the Cities by Letter Carriers, have in each case been reduced to one half penny, being one half the former rates. With regard to newspapers, the Postage charge has been altogether taken off upon several important branches of newspaper circulation, and papers to and from the other British North American Provinces, papers sent to the United States, and Editors' exchange papers, pass free of all Postage charge whatever. The rates on printed papers, circulars, pamphlets, books, &c., have also been modified and reduced. The gross receipts of the Department for the year under review are given as £71,788 18s. 5d. currency, a drop of over £20,000 from the previous year; but this is a good showing after all, for when it is remembered that the new uniform rate of postage was but one third the former average rate, it is readily figured out that correspondence nearly doubled under the new tariffs. This is confirmed by the following comparative statement of pieces mailed:-- One week preceding 5th April, 1851, No. of letters, 41,000; papers, 90,000. One week preceding 5th April, 1852, No. of letters, 86,051[34]; papers, 101,000. [34] This is explained in the report for 1853 as being "a clerical error for 71,726." There were 243 new post offices added during the year and 1023 miles of post routes.