Page 177 - Jarvis & Wright: Jamaica Display to RPSL

Jamaica: The Vendryes Provisional

Penultimate day of the 4d rate from Jamaica to Britain, 30 December 1890.
The Governor wrote on 19 May 1890 to the Secretary of State for the Colonies to report that:

“I have in Privy Council fixed the reduced rates of postage shown in the enclosed memoranda.

Rates of Postage to the United States of America, Canada and other places when dispatched by
vessels not under contract with Imperial Government:-

Letters not exceeding ½ oz. 2½d….”
The Secretary of State for the Colonies informed the Governor that he had exceeded his authority
and that the new rate was “contrary to the Postal Union of which Jamaica is a member, unless such
reduction was extended to all mail matter whether carried by contract or not.”
The rate was already in force by the time this refusal reached Jamaica. A general reduction in the
colonial rate was anyway planned for 1 January 1891. So the Colonial Office eventually conceded
that the Jamaican rate could continue. However it was not to discriminate between contracted and
uncontracted vessels and was to apply only to post to the USA and Canada.

4d remained the letter rate to Great Britain until 31 December 1890.

30 December 1890, penultimate day of the 4d rate from Jamaica to Great Britain.
F80 obliterator (Little London).
Kingston: 30 December 1890.
Per RMS Don.
Newton Abbot: 15 January 1891.