PRELIMINARY--INTERPRETATION.

1. This Act shall be known and may be cited as _The Post Office Act_ 1867; and the following terms and expressions therein shall be held to have the meaning hereinafter a.s.signed to them....

The term "Letter" includes Packets of Letters;

The term "Postage" means the duty or sum chargeable for the conveyance of Post Letters, Packets and other things by Post;

The term "Foreign Country" means any country not included in the dominions of Her Majesty;

The term "Foreign Postage" means the postage on the conveyance of Letters, Packets or other things, within any Foreign Country or payable to any Foreign Government;

The term "Canada Postage" means the postage on the conveyance of Letters, Packets and other things by Post within the Dominion of Canada or by Canada Mail Packet;

The term "Mail" includes every conveyance by which Post Letters are carried, whether it be by land or by water;

The term "British Packet Postage" means the postage due on the conveyance of letters by British Packet Boats, between the United Kingdom and British North America;--And the term "British Postage"

includes all Postage not being Foreign, Colonial or Canadian;

The term "Post Letter" means any letter transmitted or deposited in any Post Office to be transmitted by the Post;--And a letter shall be deemed a Post Letter from the time of its being so deposited or delivered at a Post Office, to the time of its being delivered to the party to whom it is addressed....

2. All Laws in force in the Provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia or New Brunswick, at the Union thereof on the first of July, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in respect to the Postal Service, and continued in force by the "British North America Act 1867," shall be and the same are hereby repealed.

ORGANIZATION AND GENERAL PROVISIONS.

7. There shall be at the seat of Government of Canada a Post Office Department for the superintendence and management of the Postal Service of Canada, under the direction of a Postmaster General.

8. The Postmaster General shall be appointed by Commission under the Great Seal of Canada, and shall hold his office during pleasure.

10. The Postmaster General may, subject to the provisions of this Act:

1. Establish and close Post Offices and Post Routes;

3. Enter into and enforce all contracts relating to the conveyance of the Mails or other business of the Post Office;

4. [_Make regulations concerning mailable matter and limits of weight and dimensions of such._]

5. [_Establish rates of postage and conditions on matter not already provided for._]

6. Cause to be prepared and distributed Postage Stamps, necessary for the prepayment of Postages under this Act, also stamped envelopes for the like purpose;

7. [_Make arrangements concerning Posts and Postal business with postal authorities outside of Canada._]

11. Prescribe and enforce such Regulations as to letters directed to be registered as to him may seem necessary, in respect to the registration of letters and other matter pa.s.sing by Mail, as well between places in Canada, as between Canada and the United Kingdom, any British Possession, the United States or any other Foreign Country, and to the charge to be made for the same; and also in respect to the registration by the officers of the Post Office of letters unquestionably containing money or other valuable enclosure when posted without registration by the senders of the same, and to imposing a rate of two cents registration charge upon such letters;

14. Establish and provide Street Letter Boxes or Pillar Boxes or Boxes of any other description for the receipt of letters and such other mailable matter as he may deem expedient, in the streets of any City or Town in Canada, or at any Railway Station or other public place where he may consider such Letter Boxes to be necessary;

15. Grant licenses revocable at pleasure, to Agents other than Postmasters, for the sale to the Public of Postage Stamps and Stamped Envelopes, and allow to such Agents a commission of not exceeding five per cent, on the amount of their sales.

RATES OF POSTAGE.

19. On all letters transmitted by Post for any distance within Canada, except in cases herein otherwise specially provided for, there shall be charged and paid one uniform rate of three cents per half ounce in weight, any fraction of an ounce being chargeable as a half ounce, provided that such three cents postage rate be prepaid by postage stamps or in current coin at the time of posting such letters; and when such letters are posted without prepayment being made thereon, then and in such case it shall be lawful to charge upon letters so posted unpaid a rate of five cents per half ounce.

20. On letters not transmitted through the mails, but posted and delivered at the same Post Office, commonly known as local or drop letters, the rate shall be one cent, to be in all cases prepaid by postage stamp affixed to such letters.

21. [_Seamen and Soldiers, etc. in Her Majesty's service, ent.i.tled to receive and send letters on payment of a certain special sum in lieu of all British postage, shall be freed likewise from Canadian postage._]

22. The rate of postage upon newspapers printed and published in Canada, and issued not less frequently than once a week, from a known office of publication, and sent to regular subscribers in Canada by mail, shall be as follows: upon each such newspaper, when issued once a week, the rate for each quarter of a year, commencing on the first of January, first of April, first of July, or first of October of each year, shall be five cents, when issued twice a week, ten cents, when issued three times a week, fifteen cents, when issued six times a week, thirty cents, and in that proportion, adding one rate of five cents for each issue more frequent than once a week; and such postage must be pre-paid in advance from the first day of the quarter from which the payment commences, for a term of not less than a quarter of a year: ... provided, nevertheless, that _Exchange Papers_, addressed by one editor or publisher of a newspaper to another editor or publisher, may be sent by Post free of charge.

23. On all newspapers sent by Post in Canada, except in the cases hereinbefore expressly provided for, there shall be payable a rate not exceeding two cents each, and when such newspapers are posted in Canada this rate shall in all cases be prepaid by postage stamp affixed to the same.

24. For the purposes of this Act, the word "Newspapers" shall be held to mean periodicals published not less frequently than once in each week, and containing notices of pa.s.sing events.

25. The rate of postage upon periodical publications, other than newspapers, shall be one cent per four ounces, or half a cent per number, when such periodicals weigh less than one ounce and are posted singly, and when such periodical publications are posted in Canada, these rates shall in all cases be prepaid by postage stamps affixed to the same.

26. On books, pamphlets, occasional publications, printed circulars, prices current, handbills, book and newspaper ma.n.u.script, printer's proof sheets whether corrected or not, maps, prints, drawings, engravings, photographs when not on gla.s.s, in cases containing gla.s.s, sheet music whether printed or written, packages of seeds, cuttings, bulbous roots, scions or grafts, patterns or samples of merchandize or goods, the rate of postage shall be one cent per ounce; provided that no letter or other communication intended to serve the purpose of a letter be sent or enclosed therein, and that the same be sent in covers open at the ends or sides or otherwise so put up as to admit of inspection by the Officers of the Post Office to ensure compliance with this provision--and this postage rate shall be prepaid by postage stamps in all cases when such articles are posted in Canada.

27. [_Foregoing rates subject to such conditions as may be agreed upon between Canada and any other country._]

28. [_Postage on unpaid letters is due from addressee, or if refused may be recovered with costs by civil action from sender._ (See 13^o--14^o Vict. Cap. 17, Sec. 12.)]

29. In all cases where letters and other mailable matter are posted for places without the limits of Canada, on which stamps for pre-payment are affixed of less value than the true rate of Postage to which such letters are liable,--or when stamps for prepayment are affixed to letters addressed to any place as aforesaid for which prepayment cannot be taken in Canada,--the Postmaster General may forward such letters, charged with postage, as if no stamp had been affixed.

30. And for avoiding doubts, and preventing inconvenient delay in the posting and delivery of letters,--no Postmaster shall be bound to give change, but the exact amount of the postage on any letter or other mailable matter shall be tendered or paid to him in current coin as respects letters or other things delivered, and in current coin or postage stamps as the case may require in respect to the letters or other things posted.

31. [_The Postmaster General may make reasonable compensation to Masters of vessels not Post Office Packets for conveyance of ship letters from foreign ports to Canada._]

32. [_Postmaster General has exclusive privilege of collecting, conveying and delivering letters, etc._; $20 _penalty for infraction_. (See 13^o--14^o Vict. Cap. XVII. Sec. 9.)]

35. [_The Postmaster General may employ Letter Carriers, and charge two cents for delivery of a letter and one cent for a newspaper or pamphlet._ (See 14^o--15^o Vict. Cap. LXXI. Sec. 15.)]

36. It shall be lawful for the Postmaster General, with the consent of the Governor in Council, to establish in any city, when he shall deem it expedient, a system of free delivery by Letter Carrier of letters brought by mail and he may direct that from the time that such system is established, no charge shall be made for the delivery of such letters by Letter Carriers in such city, and further that on drop or local letters when delivered by Letter Carrier in such city, one cent only per half ounce shall be charged in addition to the ordinary local or drop letter rate.

37. [_Postmaster General may establish a parcel post._ (See 22^o Vict. Cap. XVII. Sec. 5.)]