The History of the Post Office in British North AmericaSmith, William
History
The History of the Post Office in British North America
Smith, William
Canada. Post Office Department; Postal service -- Canada -- History; Postal service -- Great Britain -- Colonies
Following up the enactment of this measure, the Nova Scotia legislature
appointed James B. Uniacke, the chairman of the post office committee,
to visit Canada, and lay before the governor general the views of Nova
Scotia on the subject of the provincial post office and to endeavour to
settle with Canada the questions necessary to be disposed of before the
post office could be established.
Uniacke arrived in Montreal on the 8th of June, and had interviews with
Elgin and the executive council. Two days later the council adopted a
report drawn up in terms differing but slightly from those of the
commission of 1847, and recommending the adoption of a uniform rate of
threepence (five cents) throughout British North America.
The other recommendations were the same as those submitted by the
committee, with the addition that postage stamps should be issued for
the use of the public. The council were of opinion that the provisions
recommended should be introduced in a bill, to be laid before
parliament, and expressed the hope that the postmaster general might be
given full discretionary powers in matters referring to the colonial
post office, and that Her Majesty's government might be persuaded to
adopt the above rates and regulations without further delay, the council
pledging the administration to make good any excess of expenditure over
revenue which may possibly arise in carrying out such arrangement.[289]
The government of Nova Scotia then approached that of New Brunswick, the
lieutenant governor at Fredericton being informed of the result of
Uniacke's visit to Canada and that all that was now required was the
assent of the government of New Brunswick and the approval of the
imperial authorities. The governor general added a word to the
intimation of the lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia, and it was settled
that legislation would be introduced into the New Brunswick legislature
in accordance with the terms agreed upon.[290]
All requisite measures for establishing the colonial post offices on an
independent footing were matured, so far as could be done, by the
legislatures themselves, and nothing now remained but the imperial
sanction. This the law officers were of opinion would require an act of
the imperial parliament, and on the 28th of July, 1849,[291] an act was
passed empowering the legislative authorities in any of the colonies to
establish and maintain a system of posts, to charge rates of postage for
the conveyance of correspondence, and to appropriate to their own uses
the revenue to be derived therefrom. With this action taken, the control
of the imperial government over the colonial posts should cease and
determine.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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