and amassed a handsome fortune. The bar practice, as often happens, did not suit his constitution as well as his postal perambulations, and, like m a n y another colonial Boniface, when he m a d e the money he didn't know how to enjoy it, so he withdrew before his time to a quiet corner in the old cemetery, and left to others the enjoyment of the harvest which he worked so hard to secure. T h e sum appropriated for the whole Mail Department of Port Phillip for 1841, was only ,£2105 1 os., and was thus apportioned :— Postmaster at Melbourne, M r . David Kelsh, and Deputy-Postmaster at Geelong, M r . P. M'Keever, commission to be shared between in proportion to the business transacted at their respective offices, ^ 2 0 0 ; Letter-Carrier at Melbourne—per annum, £T,O ; Conveyance of Inland Mails, ^ 1 8 0 0 ; Conveyance of Coast Mails, ^ 2 5 ; Allowance to Masters of Vessels for Conveyance of Letters to and from Foreign Ports, ^ 2 5 ; Allowance to two Postmasters for Light, for Sealing and Night D u t y — 30s. each, £•$ ; Uniform for the Letter-Carrier at Melbourne, £7 ; Stationery, £8 ; Mail Bags and Boxes, and Incidental Expenses, £y 10s.
It m a y not be uninteresting to append the rates of postage then chargeable in the province :— Letters or Packets put into any Post Office for Delivery at such Office, id ; For every Letter or Packet under half-an-ounce put into the Post Office to go under 15 miles, 4d. ; under 20 miles, 3d. ; under ^0 miles, 6d. ; under 40 miles, 7d. ; under 80 miles, 8d. ; under 120 miles, 9d. ; under 170 miles, iod. ; under 270 miles, 1 id. ; under 300 miles, is. ; Each additional 100 miles or part thereof, id. ; For Conveyance by Sea to any Colonial Port, 4d. ; and in the same proportion for letters or packets of greater weight, each Ship Letter, in addition to the inland postage, if single, 3d. ; if double, 6d. ; if treble, 9d. ; if quadruple, is. ; for every additional quarter ol oz., 2d. Colonial newspapers, if put in within seven days of the dale, unwritten on and marked " newspaper only," free ; otherwise to be charged as letters. Foreign newspapers, re-posted in the colony, to be charged as letters.
O n the 12th August, 1841, Kelsh moved his Post Office from Chancery Lane to a small brick building, specially built for the purpose on the present Post Office site, and he was allowed one clerical assistant. But fresh troubles were in store for him. Sir George Gipps visited Melbourne in 1842, and didn't like h o w things were going on. So, on his return to Sydney, he sent down Mr. H . D. K e m p to " inspect," and the result was that Mr. Kelsh was suspended, and Mr. K e m p (on a regular salary) succeeded him on the 1st July. T h e new broom was a vast improvement on the old one. Punctilious, polite, and efficient, M r . K e m p proved himself worthy of the position, and the public confidence in the department was enlarged. The district of M o u n t Macedon was without mail communication until August, 1843, when a post office was established there—fifty-five miles from town—with Mr. C. W e d g e in charge. A mail used to leave Melbourne at 10 o'clock every second Saturday morning, and arrive at the Mount at 4 p.m. on Sunday. T h e return mail started at 6 a m . on the Wednesday, reaching Melbourne at 4 p.m. on Thursday. T h efirstweekly overland mail to Portland commenced on the 25th May, 1844. T h e salaries for the Melbourne Post Office in 1845 were:—Postmaster, ,£380 per a n n u m ; two clerks, one at £^, and one at ,£109 10s. ; with two letter-carriers at 4s. each per diem. There were nowfifteenpost offices in the district. In the beginning of this year the overland mail to and from Sydney was m a d e semi-weekly. M u c h inconvenience and expense was caused to the colonists by a H o m e postal contract m a d e by the Government, in consequence of which, all correspondence, unless addressed otherwise, was forwarded from Great Britain to Sydney, and the Port Phillip portion thence re-forwarded overland to Melbourne. This entailed sometimes a fortnight's delay, and saddled the recipients with the payment of inland and ship postage. T h e T o w n Council had unavailingly remonstrated against the grievance; and on the 2nd September, 1846, a numerously attended meeting, presided over by the Mayor (Mr. H . Moor), was held when a strongly-worded petition was adopted, praying for the discontinuance of the conveyance of the English mails in the Sydney contract packets. After further remonstrances from the public and the Press the iniquitous practice was abandoned. T h e n o w populous two-citied district of Fitzroy-<s«»2-Collingwood—a dreary, swampy area of hill and morass—had not only no post office up to the end of 1846, but the ambition of the then few politicians of what the people's agitator of after years—C. J. Don—designated the " purloins," went no further than to secure the services of a letter-carrier for themselves, and for which they stru<™led loudly and lustily. T h e so eagerly desired boon was at length granted, and in March, 1847, diefirstletter-carrier for the then Newtown put in an appearance in the person of a Peter O'Flaherty, a half-wild Irishman a
