Post Office Act 1837
(1 Vict c.76, 17th July 1837)

An Act to impose Rates of Packet Postage on East India Letters, and to amend certain Acts relating to the Post Office.
[17th July 1837.]

'WHEREAS it is expedient to extend the Power vested in Her Majesty's Postmaster General of reducing certain Rates of Postage by an Act passed in the present Session of Parliament:' Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the Authority of the same, That the Postmaster General may at any Time, with the Consent of the Lords of the Treasury, reduce all or any of the Rates of Postage on Colonial and Inland Letters and any other British Postage to such Extent as the Lords of the Treasury shall from Time to Time direct.

II. 'And whereas Arrangements may be made between Her Majesty's Postmaster General and the East India Company for establishing a Post Communication by Packet Boats between Suez or Bassora or some other convenient Port of the Red Sea or the Persian Gulf and the East Indies;' be it therefore enacted, That from and after such Communication shall have been established there shall be charged and paid for Letters transmitted by such Packet Boats between any such Port and any Port in the East Indies (Letters transmitted by Her Majesty's Mediterranean Packet Boats to or from the United Kingdom only excepted) the following Rates of Postage; (that is to say), for every Single Letter, One Shilling; for every Double Letter, Two Shillings; for every Treble Letter, Three Shillings; and for every Letter of One Ounce Weight, whether it be Single or Double or a Treble Letter, Four Shillings, and for every Quarter of an Ounce beyond that Weight the additional Postage of a Single Letter; which Rates the Postmaster General may, with the Consent of the Lords of the Treasury, require to be paid on the Letters being tendered or delivered in order to be forwarded between any such Ports.

III. 'And whereas a Fund was some Years since established for the Superannuation of old and infirm Letter Carriers, to be supported by Contributions from Letter Carriers in proportion to the Income or Value of their respective Walks or Districts, according to a certain Scale and Regulation made and approved by the then Postmaster General: And whereas by reason of the increased Accommodations afforded to the Public at various Times since the Establishment of the said Fund the Income and Value of such Walks or Districts, and the Emoluments of the Letter Carriers in respect of the same, have been considerably reduced, insomuch that the Contributions to the said Fund are inadequate to support the same and to pay the Superannuation Allowances now chargeable thereon: And whereas it is just and expedient that the Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury should be empowered to direct any Deficiency in the said Fund to be paid out of the Public Revenue;' be it therefore enacted, That it shall be lawful for the Lords of the Treasury, in their Discretion, to authorize and empower the Postmaster General from Time to Time to pay out of the Revenue of the Post Office all such Sum and Sums of Money as may be necessary for the Purpose of making good any Deficiency in the said Fund, and of fully paying and satisfying the several Superannuation Allowances heretofore granted and made payable out of the same, and now charged and chargeable thereupon, until such Time as the Objects and Purposes for which the said Fund was established shall have been fully accomplished.

IV. And be it enacted, That this. Act shall come into operation on the Second Day of August One thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven.