The anomalies were due partly to the mixed character of the control of the system in the province, and partly to the inability of the deputy postmaster general, owing to his lack of efficient help, to supervise the system. Howe was under the authority both of the postmaster general in England, and of the provincial government, which provided for the maintenance of a number of offices, which would not have been sanctioned by the postmaster general on account of the expense. Illegal conveyance of letters was the rule in this province, as well as in all the others. The great proportion of the correspondence between the towns and villages on the long coast was carried by trading vessels. On some of the main routes, notably from Halifax to Pictou and to Annapolis, there were fast four-horse coaches. They travelled eight miles an hour in summer and five in winter. They were employed to carry the mails, but it never happened that the mail bags contained as many letters as the pockets of the passengers. In Cape Breton there was not a single carriage road in the island. Most of the roads were mere bridle paths, and in many parts there were no roads of any kind. It took five days to carry the mail bag from Halifax to Sydney during the summer, and from eleven to eighteen in the winter. The deputy postmaster general had a salary of L400 a year, which was supplemented by the amounts collected as newspaper postage. In 1841, the amount of this perquisite was L330 a year. It was a cause of complaint on the part of rival publishers that the _Nova Scotian_, the leading newspaper in the province, paid no postage. As the circulation of this paper--1400 copies a week--was more than double that of any other paper in the province, the grievance was a real one. In explanation of the exemption, Howe stated that for ten years before he purchased the _Nova Scotian_, the proprietor, Joseph Howe, had assisted him in the management of the office for eleven months while the deputy postmaster general was in England, taking full management of the provincial system. For these services Joseph Howe had asked no compensation, and the deputy postmaster general had therefore taken no remuneration for mailing the newspapers.[272] There were only two towns in the province where letters were delivered by carriers--Halifax and Yarmouth. In Halifax, the city was divided between two carriers, whose pay consisted of the fees they were entitled to take from the recipients of the letters they delivered, at a penny a letter. They attempted to charge the same sum for the delivery of each newspaper, but many persons would not pay the fee. The carriers received L2 10_s._ and L2 a week respectively. Yarmouth also had two carriers, whose penny fees gave them each about L12 10_s._ a year.