Howe brought a little more tact than Heriot seemed capable of, in dealing with the provincial authorities. He laid the commands which had been impressed on him by the secretary of the general post office before the legislature, and obtained the assistance of that body in maintaining routes, which did not provide sufficient postage to cover their expenses. On his part he engaged, in disregard of the injunctions of the secretary, to allow all the sums which were collected on a route to be applied to paying the postmasters and mail couriers as far as these sums would go, the legislature undertaking to make up the deficiencies. In April 1817,[231] Howe made a comprehensive report of the mail services in operation at that date, together with the arrangements for their maintenance. There were two principal routes in the province. The first in local importance was that through the western counties from Halifax to Digby and thence by packet to St. John. The section between Halifax and Digby cost L348 a year, of which the legislature paid L200. The packet service across the bay was maintained by the legislatures of the two provinces. The settlements beyond Digby as far as Yarmouth and on to Shelburne, were served by a courier who received L130 from the legislature, and all the postage on letters going to the settlements, which amounted to L65 a year. The second leading route was that between Halifax and Fredericton by way of Truro. This route, which was begun in 1812, was discontinued at the close of the war. It had been found so advantageous, however, that it was re-established in the beginning of 1817, as the permanent route between Quebec and Halifax. From Truro, a courier travelled through the eastern counties to Pictou and Antigonishe. This was a district which Howe regarded with much satisfaction. He wrote that the large immigration from Scotland and other parts of Great Britain had increased the number of settlements and thrown open the resources of this part of the province to that extent, that the revenue of the eastern districts would soon surpass that from those in the west. Antigonishe collected the letters from all the eastern harbours and settlements, and although the post office had been open for only about nine months, the results, as Howe conceived them, were very encouraging. The expenses of the courier at this period far outran the revenues, and accordingly the legislature made a contribution of L130. The remainder of the shortage was made up partly by postages and partly by private subscriptions.