Finlay urged as a first step that Canada should make a passable road as far as the New Brunswick border, believing that the home government would see that the governments of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia would provide the facilities for travel within those provinces. Dorchester, the governor general, who had taken much interest in the question, sent Finlay in 1787 to make a survey of a route from Quebec to Halifax, and to arrange for couriers to pass monthly between the two places. The British government gave its approval to his efforts to establish a connection between the British provinces, and on its part, arranged that, commencing in March 1788, the packets which ran between Falmouth and New York should call at Halifax during the eight months from March to November of each year.[226] The call of the packets at Halifax, and the exchange of the mails between Great Britain and Canada at that port marked the commencement of the inland services in the Maritime provinces. Post offices were opened at the important points on the route between Halifax and Quebec. The couriers passed through Fredericton and St. John in New Brunswick, and Digby, Annapolis, Horton (now Wolfville) and Windsor in Nova Scotia.[227] St. John post office was opened in 1784, the office of postmaster and king's printer being combined. The courier between St. John and Fredericton travelled over his route fortnightly, and a service of the same frequency was maintained on the route in Nova Scotia. In order that the post office should have the advantage of conveying the military despatches between the posts on the route, the expresses which had been employed in this duty were suppressed, much to the distaste of the military authorities, who would henceforward have to pay the very high postal charges on their letters. These charges were prohibitive for all but very urgent letters. A letter consisting of a single sheet cost twelve cents to carry it from St. John to Fredericton if it weighed less than an ounce. If it weighed over an ounce the charge was quadrupled. The following are the rates charged by the postmaster at Halifax to the several post offices in Nova Scotia: to Windsor fourpence; to Horton sevenpence, and to Annapolis and Digby ninepence. At the risk of repetition, the reader is reminded that these charges are for letters consisting each of a single sheet, weighing less than one ounce, and that in case the letters should weigh above an ounce, the rates given were multiplied by four, as a letter weighing over an ounce was regarded as equal to four letters. The postage from Fredericton to London, England, was sixty-four cents for a single letter. As one glances over the long newsy letters in the published correspondence of the time, he is persuaded that those letters did not pass through the post office. The lately published Winslow correspondence[228] is full of such letters, but they let us into the secret of how they came to be sent.