Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 8.djvu/201

 NOTES ON OREGON CONDITIONS IN THE FIFTIES. 193 transit charge on mails passing through England from and to the United States is reduced to 12% cents an ounce, the price paid by that government for the conveyance of the British and Canada mails through the United States." An offer was also made by the American government to make a transit rate of 12% cents on all letter mail, the offer to in- clude California and Oregon, which then had higher rates than other parts of the Union, the reduction proposed being from 50 to 75 per cent. The present day letter rate from any part of the United States to Great Britain is 5 cents, the con- trast between which and 24 cents or more is quite striking. All the Oregon mail routes in 1856 aggregated 968 miles in length. Steamboat routes were 144 miles, coach routes 95 miles, and others not specified, but chiefly on horse, 729 miles. For the unspecified service $18,121 were to be paid; for the coach $3,650; for the steamboat $8,100. The total transpor- tation called for was 115,648 miles during the year, and the annual compensation was $29,871. California was then far in the lead, with service and compensation six times greater than Oregon. Washington had no standing whatever in the report that year. Oregon figured to a small extent in the pensions of the long- gone-by days referred to. A. McKinlay, with office in Oregon City, was the United States Agent. In Oregon Territory, during the y^ear ending June 30, 1855, the number of pension- ers reported was nine, the yearly amount of whose pensions was stated to be $790. The amount actually paid, however, was reported to be $1,333.31. The year following, ending June 30. 1856, the pensioners were increased in number to sixteen, and the amount due them to $1,264, though the amount paid that year was only $412.03. The payments of the two years amounted to only $1,745.34. Mr. McKinlay had in hand $729.22 awaiting pensioners at the close of the second year. The Oregon pensioners in 1907 probably number more than five thousand, and the moneys paid them annually are probably not less than one million dollars.