The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. SATURDAY, JULY 23. 1898. IMPERIAL PENNY POST.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIX, Issue 172, 23 July 1898, Page 4

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

SATURDAY, JULY 23. 1898. IMPERIAL PENNY POST.

For tiio causa that lacks assistance, For tho ■vrrong that needs rssistancD, For the future in tlio distanco, And tho good that wo can do.

From the congratulations that are being showered on Mr Henniker Heaton, the champion of Imperial penny postage, it would appear that the success attained by that gentleman at the recent Postal Conference in London is much greater and farther reaching than one would infer on a hasty consideration of what was done at the meeting. According to the brief cabled account of the .proceedings, the Home Government expressed a willingness to enter into a reciprocal arrangement with any colony desiring a. reduction of postage to a penny or two-pence per half ounce. The Canadian delegates, who had come prepared to back penny postage, tabled a motion in general agreement with the proposal of the authorities, which was carried; but the delegates fr.om Queensland, New Zealand, Victoria, South Australia, and West Australia abstained from voting, and through the medium of Mr Reeves, our AgentGeneral, who represented this Colony at the Conference, expressed their regret at the suggested departure from the principle of Imperial uniformity. Aiiendeavour to get the Conference to endorse this view was, however, defeated ; and the result of the deliberations was the establishment of a penny postage between Great Britain, Canada, the Cape Colony. Natal, and any Crown colony willing to accept it. Australasia is-therefore out of it for the'present, our governments fearing to'incur the "enormous loss which they calculate they would sustain by the adoption on their part of a penny rate. From the reciprocal character of the offer made by the Home Government, and accepted by certain of the colonies, one would have concluded that there was not any great chance of the British postal authorities low-e,ring the rate on letters unless Australasia did -the same. But. according- to the London 'Standard,' they intend to make the concession on the outward postage whether we reduce or not. The journal referred to stated the other day that after January the charge on letters posted from Great Britainto these colonies would be one penny. If this statement is correct, it is "clear that reciprocity is not to be made a hard and fast dondition in the new arrangement: and it seems' reasonable that it should not. The London 'Times' has expressed this view of the question, contending that if Great Britain concedes only reciprocal terms, she misses the opportunity of promoting Colonial and Imperial reform.

Probably no one holds this opinion more strongly than Mr Henniker Heaton, who maintains that the British Government, instead of making the Post Office a source of direct reTemle _4t returns an annual profit of £4,000,000 to the treasury now—it should be ti^ed^Eor the service of the

people. In a recent number of the_ 'Nineteenth Century' he sets forth in forcible language what the British Post Office is and what it might become. 'By posts and telegi-aphs,' says Mr Heaton, 'business is created and fostered; and it is as unscientific tq tax such agencies as it would be to tax wlieels, boots, ploughs, fingerposts, or shop-signs (the post office does indeed tax advertisements, which is worse than taxing- shopsigns), machinery, or ships. The profit derived from stamps is equivalent to the hated poll tax, against which our forefathers revolted; and while we have abolished turnpike-keepers, •we pay a far more oppressive poll (55 per cent, of the postage) to the railway companies. At every turn, cabling, telegraphing, or telephoning, writing, remitting, advertising, cultivating gardens or pasture, farming, dairy-keeing-, pushing manufactures, or forwarding1 goods—the postal hand is heavy upon us, dipping in our pockets and'tithing from our seed corn. Our Post Office surplus exceeds the total annual revenue of Denmark, Bulgaria and other States. No other country in the world submits to this suiciclhVfinancial phlebotomy. In our colonies, in the United States,- in ■France, or Germany, profit in one pasta 1 department is expended in developing another, and the people are never told as in England, "Such and such reforms are doubtless desirable; but they would necessitate resort to the sacred surplus, and you must go without them." The huge postal profit is, in short, a crying public scandal, a monument of financial incompetence or ignorance, a tribute worthy of Pharoah wrung from sweat, and tears, and penury.'

That is the British Post-office as it now is. Mr Heaton next tells us what it should be. His ideas of reform are certainly very large, and a.t first sight his views as to the- duties of a model postal department may appear far too liberal to be ever adopted. On the other hand one can scarcely question Mr Heaton's contention that if the department were conducted on the lines he suggests it must not onty be an enormous convenience to the public, but aid in a very great degree the extension of commercial and social relations throughout the Empire. One of the chief planks in his platform is the already well-known one of Imperial penny postage. Under his arrangement one penny would .carry an ounce letter to any part of the Empire, and the same missive could be registered for an additional penny, while the weight allowed for a letter to the colonies would be increased to one ounce for a single stamp. Telegrams could be sent to India for sixpence, a word, and to Australia or South Africa for one shilling a word. These changes are among those that chiefly affect the colonies. In Great Britain itself Mr Heaton proposes a much larger, number of alterations and improvements i n the administration of the postal service. For instance, he would institute an agricultural parcels post for British fruit, vegetables and dairy produce, etc., 'at specially low rates so as to provide cheap and rapid transport for perishable food, and to divert into British pockets the £30,----000.000 annually paid to foreigners for such produce.' Parcels would be conveyed at the rate of one penny per pound, and a parcel post established lo the United States. The savings banks would accept deposits of one shilling and upwards, including odd pence, and the Continental system of money order post cards, said to be a great improvement on our present postal orders, introduced. Mr Heaton also advocates other devices for cheapness, security and despatch in use on the Continent of Europe.

Except in so far as these reforms indicate the wide scope for usefulness which the post-office possesses, they do not immediately affect the colonies. Their operation is confined to Great Britain, and the benefits they confer to the people of the Old Country. The reforms which interest us, chiefly are those which aim at a cheapening and improving- of the means of letter and telegraphic communication between the colonies and England. At present it does not seem at all likely that we shall partake except indirectly in the benefits which \fr Heaton's crusade has won. Thovigh our friends at Home may be able to communicate with us at the expenditure of a penny, we shall still have to pay the old rate on our letters to them. As Mr Keeves stated the adoption by the colonies of the penny rate would involve an aggregate loss which they are not pi'epared to sustain. The postal system here pays well. There is an annual surplus of revenue over expenditure of close on £40,000, and if the value of the official correspondence and Government telegrams be added, the sum is swelled to £143,144. But notwithstanding the profitable character of the Department, it might be a questionable policy in the burdened condition of our genei-al finances to relinquish the easily acquired addition to the revenue which the post-office contributes. It is doubtless wise to wait a little before we commit ourselves to the penny Imperial rate. As we now stand we are very well off in regard to postal services compared with our position seven years ago. In ISQO we were paying 6d on every letter to the Old Country, where we now pay only 2-kl., On printed matter to foreign countries we paid 1/4 to 2/8 per pound, and on inland pockets Sd per pound: the amount we now pay for both foreign, and inland postage, on this class of matter is 4d per pound. The re-direotion fee on an inland letter was 2d, and on a foreign letter 6d to 1/2;. there is no fee now. A cablegram to the Old Country in 1890 cost by the cheapest route 10/6 a word; the charge now is 5/2. These figures show that we have not been lagging in the path of reform. .