Chapter V: The Supplemental Services

In connection with the transmission of postal packets, other services, which are supplemental, and in some cases complementary, have been added, e.g. registration and insurance, in order that senders may protect themselves against loss or damage of packets in the post.[733] Closely allied to the transmission of ordinary letters is the transmission of money from place to place, and from early times the Post Office has also undertaken this function for appropriate fees. This is the money order and postal order business. These services apply only to a very small proportion of the total number of packets posted, and may in general be regarded as exceptional.[734]

In addition to these supplemental functions, the Post Office has usually been called upon to undertake services which have little or no relation to the transmission of letters from place to place. Thus, the British Post Office conducts a Savings Bank, undertakes the issue of certain local taxation licences (gun and dog licences, etc.) on behalf of the Inland Revenue Department and local authorities, pays Old Age Pensions, sells stamps on behalf of the National Health and Unemployment Insurance Commissioners, exhibits certain Government notices in the windows of post offices, and, in general, stands ready to perform any service to which, by reason of its ramifications reaching to the remotest part of the kingdom, it may be specially well adapted.[735] In many countries the Post Office has assumed the control of the telegraph or telephone systems, or both--this, of course, largely in consideration of the close affinity between the essential character of those services--transmission from place to place of information and intelligence--and the primary function of the Post Office; and in consideration of the tendency of those services, like the letter service, to develop on monopolistic lines.[736] In continental countries the Government control of the telegraphs has been regarded as a military necessity.[737] The assumption of these functions has no necessary relation to the rates charged for the transmission of packets, but the circumstances under which the services are conducted, whether at a profit or at a loss, may indirectly affect the rates.

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