During his 1859 visit to Mauritius to advise upon postal matters, Pearson Hill recommended the installation of pillar boxes and on the 17th November 1859 a minute for the Executive Council was ordered to be prepared. This minute was to "ask for a vote for the 20 iron pillar letter boxes recommended by Mr Hill . . . at an estimated cost of £9 apiece. On 19 July 1862 it was announced that pillar boxes were to be created.

These pillar boxes withstood cyclones and the climate for more than a century and as late as 1992 there still were some pillar boxes in service.

The pillar boxes are of two types, the earliest where British First National Standard types, identifiable by the octagonal protruding 'lid' below the flat domed top and by the manufacturer's name-plate COCHRANE & Co/WOODSIDE WORKS/DUDLEY 1861. The others are locally manufactured and carry the identification-plate PLAINE LAUZUN/1889/ENGINE WORKS. These are modelled on the English manufactured boxes but have a circular projecting rim to the domed top.

Datestamps

The datestamps have been used on Mauritius since the end of the 1840's up to this day. The first datestamp used were simular to British datestamps but with a crown at top. The second handstamp was a double circle datestamp with "G.P'O." at upper circumference and  "MAURITIUS" at the lower. In 1861 ordinary handstamps typ B2 were used and later on changed to C1 type and different DT types. Five different Pillar Box datestamps were used between early 1880's up to the end of 1940's.