Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/123

 '''7. POSTAGE'''.—The rate of postage is as rapid in Bengal as in most countries where it is not conveyed by rail. The pace along the trunk road is nine and ten miles an hour; and a letter travels from Calcutta to Peshawur in about twelve days. The boon of cheap postage is now extended to all India;and one may send a letter from Simlah to Cape Comorin for half an anna, which a few years ago would have cost eighteen or twenty annas.

8. ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.—The electric telegraph is now open all over India. The events at any one presidency are known at any other presidency an hour or two after they have taken place; and messages can be transmitted by the public at large at the rate of one rupee for sixteen words.