the insurance of postal articles and the transmission of value-payable articles and money orders by post. To judge from the large number of additional penalty clauses introduced into this Act, postal crime seems to have grown side by side with postal development. Every possible misdemeanour and fraud is visited with appropriate punishment; not even the mail runner who fails in his duty to appear at the time he is required can escape, while the postman who makes a false entry in his book to show that he has been visiting a certain village, when all the time he has been loitering in a neighbouring bazaar, renders himself liable to six months' imprisonment or a fine of one hundred rupees. Sections 62 and 63 are taken from the English Post Office Protection Act, 1884, and impose penalties for injuring the contents of any letter-box or for disfiguring any post office or letter-box. To prevent hasty and ill-considered prosecutions, it was laid down in Section 72 that no Court should take cognizance of any offence under the Act, except with the previous sanction or on the complaint of the Director-General of the Post Office or of a Postmaster-General. In 1898 postage rates on letters were reduced to the following scale:-- Not exceeding ½ tola ½ anna. " " 1½ tolas 1 " " " 3 " 2 annas. For every additional 1½ tolas or fraction thereof 1 anna. The postage on newspapers was fixed at: Not exceeding 4 tolas ¼ anna. " " 20 " ½ " For every additional 20 tolas or part thereof ½ " In 1905 a still further reduction in letter postage was made, namely: Not exceeding ¾ tola ½ anna. " " 1½ tolas 1 " " " 3 " 2 annas. For every additional 1½ tolas or fraction thereof 1 anna. In 1907, after a long discussion, it was decided to make the Indian anna rate approximate to the English penny rate. The British Post Office had decided to carry 4 ounces for one penny, and as an ounce is roughly 2½ tolas the weight that could be sent for an anna was increased from 1½ to 10 tolas. The ¾ tolas for ½ anna was very properly considered absurd, and the weight was raised to 1 tola. The rates as revised in 1907 were: Not exceeding 1 tola ½ anna. " " 10 tolas 1 " For every additional 10 tolas or fraction thereof 1 anna.