Oakland Post-Office by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 4, 1883

Oakland Post-Office.

By Editor

It is only because the SIGNS is not a local paper that we have omitted notice of the improved management of the Oakland Post-office. But with the changes which are about to take place in postal matters we now call attention to some things which all the residents in this city ought to understand.

There have been hitherto forty mail boxes in the city; thirty have just been put up, which is a great accommodation to the people. Mr. Dargie has made the greatest efforts, since his appointment, to have our citizens well served. But certain difficulties stand in his way which only the citizens themselves can remove. The P. O. Department rates the offices according to their sales of stamps, cards, and stamped envelopes. Many of the residents of Oakland do business in San Francisco, and purchase their stamps in that city. In this they are doing injustice to their home office by making it impossible to increase the service by carriers. The following items from an address just circulated show the importance of this matter:--

"Owing to its small and insignificant sales, Oakland, with a population double that of Sacramento, has a post-office which ranks lower than the Sacramento post-office.

"So far as the revenue of its post-office is concerned, considering population, Oakland stands on the official record at Washington as the poorest city in the United States. Not a single one stands so low!

"This is because the citizens of Oakland, not understanding the facts above presented, purchase their postage-stamps abroad, and other offices thereby get the credit of the business, which has to pass through the Oakland post-office, though without an adequate force to properly and regularly perform the same."

Heretofore it has been most convenient to send sums of less than one dollar in postage-stamps, and the SIGNS Office has received large quantities thus sent. Heretofore there will be no necessity for this, and now is the time to make a change.

On the first of October the letter-rate will be changed. Single postage on a letter will thereafter be two cents instead of three cents.

Postal notes are for sale at all post-offices. These are no safer, for large sums, than greenbacks; being made "payable to bearer," if lost they cannot be recovered. Therefore money orders are to be preferred. But for small sums they are convenient, and no more hazardous than stamps, as both are liable to be lost, and if lost neither can be recovered. But we request all those doing business with this office to

SEND NO MORE POSTAGE-STAMPS.

We much prefer to buy our stamps as we need them. As we use many of large denominations in our book sales, we can best meet our wants by purchasing at the post-office. This will be no inconvenience to our patrons, but will be a convenience to us, and enable us to do justice to the post-office of our own city.

The above was prepared for last week's paper, but was laid over by mistake.