GIFT TO NATION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 46, 23 February 1935, Page 9

GIFT TO NATION.

PENNY POSTAGE

Restoration in Britain as

Jubilee Event.

SURPRISE DECISION. (United P.A.—Electric Telegraph—Copyright) LONDON", February 22. The "Morning Post" publishes the surprising announcement that penny postage will be restored before the King's Silver Jubilee (May 6). It recalls that the penny rate for four ounces was introduced on the occasion of the late Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee.

In a leading article the paper congratulates tlie Postmaster-General, Sir Kingsley Wood, on the decision to

restore penny postage as a Silver Jubilee gift to the nation. The loss of revenue, it says, has been estimated at

£0,500,000, but that will be offset by the gain to business which it will not be possible to measure in pounds, shillings and pence.

SUBSEQUENT DENIAL. NO EARLY RESTORATION. (Received 2 p.m.) LONDON, February 22. The Postmaster-General, Sir Kingsley Wood, subsequently denied the reported intention of the Government to restore the penny postage. He said he cannot hold out hope for an early restoration. N.Z. EXAMPLE. Highly Satisfactory Results Of System.

LATE SIR J. WARD'S LEAD

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.)

WELLINGTON, this day

The Director-General of the Post and Telegraph Department states that the return of an Imperial penny postage is a reminder that in June, 1932, the New Zealand Postal Department, as a contribution towards the lowering of costs to the community, made a number of reductions in postal charges, including reintroduction of penny postage for letters and letter-cards.

The results have been markedly encouraging to the Department, for the number of letters and letter-cards posted in the Dominion in the following year rose by over 7,500,000, as compared with 1932, although for seven months in that year the lower rates had prevailed. Last year nearly 131,000,000 letters and lettercards were posted, showing a further increase of nearly 5,000,000. This may be regarded, not only as a satisfactory public response to cheapened facilities, but as a heartening indication of increased business activity.

The late Sir Joseph Ward, when he first advocated universal penny postage at the Rome Postal Congress of 1906, declared: "What a splendid thing it would be if in postal matters we could shut our eyes to the fact that there is any limitation of boundaries or that there are wide seas between some of our countries."