ther products.

Postally there is little to record prior to 1866, which is the date
ascribed by Mr. F. Bisset Archer, Treasurer and Postmaster-General,
to an alteration in the scale of postage, the half ounce weight for
letters being introduced. The rate to Great Britain was, we believe,
from that date 6d. per half ounce.

Mr. Archer also gives this year (1866) as the date when the first
postage stamps of the Colony were issued. This date was for a time
accepted in the stamp catalogues, but it is now generally believed to
be an error, the earliest records in the stamp journals of the period
shewing the date to be 1869.

The postal notices we have been able to trace are of but little
interest, the following being all that bear on matters of interest to
collectors:--

POST OFFICE NOTICE.

_Reduction of Postage, &c._

On and from the 1st April, 1892, the Postage to all parts of the World
on Letters, Newspapers, Books, etc., will be as follows:--

For Letters, 2 1/2d. per 1/2 oz.

For Postcards, 1d. each.

For Reply Postcards, 2d. each.

[page 13]

For Newspapers, books, printed papers, commercial papers,
patterns and samples, 1/2d. per 2 oz., with the Postal
Union proviso of a minimum payment of 2 1/2d. for a packet of
commercial papers, and of 1d. for a packet of patterns or
samples.

Fee for registration of any of the above named articles, 2d.

Fee for the acknowledgment of the delivery of a registered
article, 2 1/2d.

By His Excellency's Command,
(Signed) J. H. FINDEN,
_Postmaster._

Post Office, Bathurst, Gambia,
_3rd March, 1892._

POST OFFICE.

Ordinance No. 6 of 1897.

_March 11th, 1897._

1. This Ordinance may be cited as the Post Office Ordinance, 1897,
Inland Postal Regulations.

13. From and after the commencement of this Ordinance, postal packets
may be sent by post between such places in the Colony of the Gambia
and the Protected Territories adjacent thereto as may be from time to
time notified by the Administrator.

14. The Administrator-in-Council may from time to time make in
relation to the inland post hereby established such regulations as he
may think fit--

For prescribing and regulating the places, times, and modes of
posting and delivery.

For fixing the rates of postage to be payable on inland
letters and postal packets.

For prescribing payment of postage and regulating the mode