1 c. + 1 c., greenish-black. OFFICIAL CARD. For the use of the _Customs Postal Package Office_ for notifying to the _adressè_ the arrival of a package liable to duty. A notice form is printed at the back of the card in black, with spaces left for the particulars to be inserted by hand. The face of the card has nothing whatever upon it. Without expressed value. Black on buff. _Remarks._—The cards of Issue V. are met with, with the stamp surcharged “OFFICIAL” or “SERVICE,” &c. &c.; but, as stated in the remarks after Issue III. of the envelopes, the surcharges are in no way official. NEW BRUNSWICK. PRELIMINARY NOTES. _BY E. D. BACON._ New Brunswick is situated between 45° 5′ and 48° 5′ N. lat., and 63° 47′ and 67° 53′ W. long.; its area is about 27,105 square miles. It is connected with Nova Scotia by a low isthmus. New Brunswick, in the early part of the last century, belonged to the French, and was called by them New France. At the peace of 1763 New Brunswick, with the rest of Canada, was ceded by France to Great Britain, and was annexed to Nova Scotia until 1785, when it was erected into a separate colony. It was first colonized by British subjects in 1761, and in 1783 by disbanded troops from New England. We learn from the following notice, which appeared in _The Royal Gazette_, published at Fredericton, New Brunswick, on September 10th, 1851, that the introduction of postage stamps into this colony took place on September 6th of that year: “NOTICE TO THE PUBLIC. “A SUPPLY of POSTAGE STAMPS has been received from England, and will be on sale at this office on and after Friday next, the 6th September. They are of the respective colours and values as under; viz.: _Scarlet_ Three Pence. _Yellow_ Six Pence. _Pink_ One Shilling. “Supplies will be immediately forwarded to all Postmasters throughout the Province, and through them to the Way Office Keepers, from whom the Public will be able to obtain them at cost prices in any quantities they may require. “N.B.—The postage stamps should be affixed to the _face_, or direction side of the Letter, at the right hand upper corner. “(Signed) J. HOWE, _Postmaster-General_. “GENERAL POST OFFICE, ST. JOHN, _1st September, 1851_.” Besides giving us the exact day the stamps came into use, the above notice is interesting as proving which shade of the One Shilling was first issued. One would hardly call any of the stamps of this value _pink_, as officially designated, but the majority of them are a pinkish-mauve; and these were undoubtedly the stamps referred to in the notice, while the darker shades of mauve, or dull violet, are those of later printings. The Report of the Postmaster-General of Great Britain for 1857 furnishes us with a list of the Postal rates of the Colony in force at the time of the introduction of postage stamps. It says: