1852 840 8,618 3,700,000 $230,629.00 {First year of { account under { Provincial control. 1853 1016 9,122 4,250,000 278,587.00 {Charge on { newspapers { reduced one-half. 1854 1166 10,027 5,100,000 320,000.00 1855 1293 11,192 6,000,000 368,166.00 {Newspapers conveyed { without charge. 1856 1375 11,839 7,000,000 374,295.00 1857 1506 13,253 8,500,000 462,163.00 1858 1566 13,600 9,000,000 541,153.00 1859 1638 13,871 8,500,000 678,426.98 1860 1698 14,202 9,000,000 658,451.99 {Additional 2c. rate { on unpaid letters { and charge { made on newspapers. The Report continues:-- From the experience of the past, the confident hope may be entertained that, by a wise and judicious economy, (and without withholding from newly settled portions of the country, the Postal accommodations without which the settlement of the country cannot advance), in a comparatively short space of time the Postage upon letters may be reduced from the present five cent to a _three cent rate_, as near an approach to the Penny sterling postage system of the Mother Country as the relative value of our currency will conveniently permit. It was eight years before these hopes were realized, however. The "epistolary intercourse with the United States" is given for the same period, but we need only note that the postal value of the total correspondence exchanged was $83,630.97 in 1852, had increased to $187,469.59 in 1857, and then dropped gradually to $178,132.39 in 1860. The Report says:-- The prepayment of letters passing between the two countries continues optional on either side, at the combined rate of 10 cents per 1/2 oz. from any place in Canada to any place in the United States and _vice versa_, except to or from the States on the Pacific, California and Oregon, when the rate is 15 cents per 1/2 oz. The accounts present a charge in favor of the American Bank Note Co. of $1697.95 "for engraving Letter and Newspaper stamps and Stamped Envelopes." Of the latter we shall have more to say in their proper place. The Reports of 1861 and 1862 contain nothing special, and the accounts show payments of $1451.87 and $1583.63 respectively to the American Bank Note Co.