All four Maritime colonies (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland) used the "way" office system. The way office was an agreed-upon place where the inhabitants of a village or rural district could leave letters. The letters were eventually taken to the nearest post office where they entered the mail stream proper. Alternatively, it was a place where villagers could pick up their mail. Way office keepers were totally separate from the postal system. Operational arrangements and schedules were worked out between local postmasters and way-office keepers, independant of any other formal authority. The way office was, if nothing else, a convention based on popular custom.

John Willis

Source

Smith, William. The History of the Post Office in British North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1920, pp 248-249.