Page:The Post Office of India and its story.djvu/95

 CHAPTER VII

MONEY ORDERS

PREVIOUS to 1880 the Money Order system of India was managed by the Government Trea- suries. Bills of Exchange (Hundis) current for twelve months were issued by one treasury payable upon another, and as there were only 283 offices of issue and payment in the country the money order was not a popular means of remittance — in fact, it failed altogether to compete with the remittance of currency notes by post.

In 1878 Mr. Monteath, Director-General of the Post Office, proposed to Government to take over the money order business from the treasuries. He argued that, with the small number of treasuries and the trouble involved in reaching one of these every time a money order had to be sent 0. aid, the existing system could never become popular. T..xe Post Office was able to provide 5500 offices of issue and payment, and the number of these would be always increasing and becoming more accessible to the people. Mr. Monteath's proposal was strongly opposed by the Comptroller-General, but was accepted by Government and sanctioned by the Secretary of State on the 27th November, 1879.

On the 1st January, 1880, the Post Office took over the whole management of issue and payment of money orders, and the audit was performed by the Compiler of Post 71