Hamilton, BERMUDA - Government House - 1958 - Perot Stamp: All the Bermuda Postmasters’ stamps are classic examples of stamps first discovered and recorded many years after they were issued. All have romantic associations and they and their “biographies” form part of the lore of philately. As a general rule the privilege of issuing postage stamps is reserved to governments, but there have been cases in which private undertakings have made issues; these are among that class of stamps known to collectors as private locals. The individuals who have issued postage stamps are few indeed; three of them were postmasters in Bermuda. One was William Bennet Perot, postmaster of Hamilton, Bermuda, from 1818 until 1862. When he was first appointed he was 27 years old. For the first 14 years of his appointment, his remuneration was derived solely from an unusual local statutory provision under which postmasters were entitled to retain and appropriate to their own use and benefit all the postage received by them on internal mail. They were obliged to forward all “inland notes”‘, as internal mail was then called. Later he was paid an annual salary: £50 in 1843; £62 in 1844; £70 in 1847; and £95 in 1854, increasing to £100 in 1858. Nevertheless he was still entitled to retain the internal postage money which he received; between 1843 and 1845 it rose from £25.14s.3d. to £44.13s. Prepayment of inland postage at the rate of one penny an ounce was first required by a local Act of 1842 and was continued as a requirement by later local statutes. The obligation remained on the postmaster to forward all such inland notes. As was pointed out in Bermuda, The Post Office, postal markings and adhesive stamps by M.H. Ludington p 171 Robson Lowe, London, 1962, it was to the postmaster’s advantage to ensure that all inland notes were prepaid. This Photochromatic postcard is of Government House contains a local stamp with commemorates a local early stamp, the Perot stamp. The card, mailed in 1958, is in good condition. Yankee Store, Bermuda. No. 437.