Commencing on the 1st July, 1906, the present system of collecting unpaid postage will be discontinued and thereafter the following arrangements will supersede the regulations now in force:—

1. The Department will issue a special stamp which will be known as the “POSTAGE DUE” stamp and on delivery of any article of mail matter on which unpaid or additional postage is to be collected the Postmaster will affix and cancel as ordinary stamps are cancelled, postage due stamps to the amount of the extra postage charged on such article.

2. The short paid postage must be collected from the addressee before postage due stamps are affixed; otherwise the Postmaster is liable to lose the amount of such postage.

3. Postmasters will obtain postage due stamps on requisition to the Department but the initial supply will be furnished without requisition, so that the new system may go into operation on the date above mentioned. When a new form is ordered “postage due” stamps will be included in the printed list, but it is proposed to use the stock on hand at present which would otherwise have to be destroyed. The denominations of the new stamps will be 1, 2 and 5 cents.

A system of accounting for short paid postage collected by Postmasters, by means of special stamps known as “Postage Due” stamps, has been adopted by the Department. These stamps are to be affixed to shortpaid mail matter and cancelled by Postmasters when such matter is delivered to the addressee, and are not to be used for any other purpose. They cannot be used for the payment of ordinary postage, nor are they to be sold to the public.

When I was in Canada last July I made special enquiries about these labels, as there appeared to be some mystery about their use. Everyone agreed that they were not placed upon all letters opened at the Dead Letter Office and returned to their senders, and no two persons seemed to have quite the same theory as to the rules for their employment or non-employment in any particular case. Even gentlemen connected with the Post Office at Halifax, such as Mr. King and others, could give me no definite information. I therefore determined to see what I could do at headquarters in Ottawa.

Fortunately, I was able, through a collector in an official position, to obtain an introduction to the Deputy Postmaster-General, who most kindly gave me the following particulars, which show that the employment of the officially sealed labels is very restricted, thus accounting for their rarity.

Letters in Canada, as in the United States, very frequently have on the outside the well-known notice containing the address of the sender, and a request that the letter may be returned if not delivered within a certain time. These, of course, are not opened at the Dead Letter Office, and in fact, I think, are ordered not to be sent there, but are returned direct from the office to which they were originally addressed or from the head office of the district. On the other hand, those that have no indication of the address of the sender on the outside are sent to the Dead Letter Office, and there necessarily opened; but neither of these classes thus properly dealt with is considered to require the officially-sealed label. It is only if one of the former class, having the sender's name and address on the outside, is sent to the Dead Letter Office and there opened in error that the officially-sealed label is applied, to show that such letter has been opened officially, and not by any unauthorized person. Whether these pieces of gummed paper ever had a more extended use or not I cannot say, but I was assured that the above was the substance of the regulations as to their employment.

The Deputy Postmaster-General further stated that there had been so many requests for specimens of these labels that the Department had been obliged to make it a rule to turn a deaf ear to all of them. In any case they are not postage stamps, properly speaking, at all. They indicate neither postage paid nor postage due, but simply that the letters to which they are attached have been opened by proper authority, and they at the same time afford a means of reclosing them.

A complete line of Canada Revenues in stock. If you collect these interesting stamps write us for a selection.

Terms:—Cash with order only. 10% discount on orders over $5.00. Postage extra on orders under $1.00. Registration 5c extra. Stamps returnable where condition is unsatisfactory.