LOOKING BACK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 7, 9 January 1937, Page 14

LOOKING BACK.

NOTABLE EVENTS.

ADVENT OF PENNY POSTAGE.

NEXT WEEK'S ANNIVERSARIES

(Bv M. P. WHATMAN.)

"Ritinons and visionary" was the terse verdict of post office functionaries on Sir Rowland Hill's scheme for pennypostage between all post offices in the United Kingdom; but jn the face of grim | opposition Hill carried his scheme to a J triumphant conclusion to the great beneI fit of the people of Great Britain, and, | eventually, by example, to the world at I large. As a result of his energy a select committee of the House of Commons was appointed to inquire into the position. It reported as follows:— 1 lie principal points which appear to your committee to have been established in evidence nre the following: (1) The exceedingly slow advance, and occasions I! v retrograde movement of the post office revenue during the past 20 years; (2) the fact of the charge of postnge exceeding the cost in a manifold proportion: (3). the fact of postage being evaded most extensively by all classes of Society, and of correspondence being suppressed, more especially among the middle and working classes, nnd this in consequence, as nil the witnesses, including many of the post office authorities think, of the excessively hi ,r h scale of taxation: (4) the f»et of very injurious effects resulting from this state of things to the commerce and industry of the country, . nd to the social habits and moral condition of the people: the fact as far as conclusions can be drawn from very imperfect da>ta. that whenever on former occasions large reductions in the rates have been made these reductions have been followed in short periods of time by an extension of correspondence proportionate to the contraction of the rates; (ti) ami. as matters of inference from fact nnd of opinion (a) that the only remedies for the evils above stated nre a reduction of the rates, and the establishment of additional deliveries nnd more frequent dispatches of letters ; (b) that owing to the rapid extension of railroads there is an urgent nnd dally increase in necessity for making such chances: O) that any moderate reduction in the rates would occasion loss to the revenue, without In any material degree diminishing the present amount of letters Irregularly conveyed or giving rise to the growth of new correspondence: (d) that the principle of a low uniform rate is just in itself, and. when combined with prepayment nnd collection by means of a stamp, would be exceedingly convenient and highly satisfactory to the public."

So Rowland Hill had his way. A bill to enable 1 he Treasury to establish penny postage was carried in the House of Commons by a. majority of 100, and became law on August 17, 1830. A temporary office was created to enable Rowland Hill to superintend the working out of his plan. On January 10, 1840, a uniform penny rate came into o|>eratio:i throughout the United Kingdom. Canterbury's First Newspaper. Early on the morning of January 11. 1851, an interested knot of Canterbury colonists stood outside a small shed in Norwich Quav, Lyttelton. The shed was by no means an imposing building. It had not even glass windows, strips of calico covering the frames in their place. Between nine and ten o'clock a man came out of the shed carrying a bundle of newspapers, wet from the press. Within a second or so the w r aiting people were eagerly leading the first newspaper published in Canterbury. The "Lyttelton Times" was born.

The decision to establish a newspaper in Canterbury was wacle l>y the colonists before they left England.' Among the members of the Canterbury Association was Mr. Ingram Shrimpton, a printer, of Oxford, and it was to him that the venture .was entrusted. He showed his confidence in the future of the paper by risking £2000 of his own capital, and lie also secured the services of a competent foreman, and induced some of his own relatives to join the pilgrims with the intention that they should assist in the publication of the paper. He shipped tlie plant, inciuding a Stanhope press which printed the "Lyttelton Times" for the first four or five years, oil the Charlotte Jane.

No time .was lost on the arrival of the vessel in Ijyttelton in obtaining premises and setting lip the plant. The Charlotte Jane, first of the Four Ships to reach Lyttelton, arrived on December lfi, 1850. .Some three weeks later saw the first issue "irculating in the little seaport. The publication was an achievement of the highest order. The staff had been working day and night for nearly a week. The four outside pages were printed two days before publication, and the printing of the four inside pages was begun at five o'clock on the Saturday morning. The oldest paper in New Zealand, it ceased publication on June 29, 1935. For several years past- the name had been the "Christcliurch Times." Twice Wrecked on New Zealand Coast. One of the few vessels to be twice wrecked on the New Zealand coast was the Port Mliot. formerly known as tlie Indrabarah. "Indrabarah ashore seven miles north of Rangitikei and breaking up fast," was the laconic message dispatched from Marton on May lfi, 191:3. The vessel was lwdded in sand altout a quarter of a mile from the shore. The weather was heavy and there seemed little likelihood of saving the ship. With the aid of the tug Terawhiti, from Wellington, however, attempts were made to refloat her. By June 12, she was still hard and fast, although £10,000 had been spent on attempted salvage. Early in July, the combination of a very high tide and a light wind off shore enabled the Indrabarah to be refloated.

The vessel was later acquired by the Commonwealth and Dominion Line, and renamed the Port Elliot. On January 12, 1924, when bound from Auckland

to Wellington, she stranded about eight miles north of Gisborne. The crew of 70 took to the boats and were rescued by the Government ship Tutanekai. which had raced to the scene. The Port Elliot was travelling at about 13 knots when she struck a reef 300 yards from the shore. Salvage attempts were made, but the heavily-laden ship became more firmly embedded and was soon a total wreck. The Port Elliot was a steel twinscrew steamer of 739f> tons gross, and was built in 1010. On the occasion of her second wreck she was carrying 2500 tons of cargo, largely consisting of motor cars. Fall of Cetinje Towards the end of 15)15, the armies of Austria, Germany and Bulgaria were swiftly pressing home that determined drive which overwhelmed Serbia and Montenegro. When Monastir fell on December 2, the last point of resistance on Serbian soil had gone. The remnant of the r.rmy, hampered by civilian refugees. fled over the mountains, enduring terrible hardships by tiie way, to the Montenegrin and Albanian coasts.

Close Itehind came the pursuing Austro-Bulgarians. Serbia's resistance was crushed. It was now Montenegro's turn. The little kingdom was gallantly but unavailingly defended by the hardy Montenegrin mountaineers. The village capital. C'etinje, fell on January 13, 1910. Within a week tlie country was subdued, but it was not a permanent triumph. Most of the Serbian and Montenegrin troops found refuge in the Greek island of C'orfU, which had been taken over by the French under General Mondesir. There they were recuperated and equipped afresh during the spring and summer, to begin, late in the year, the reconquest of their country from the south-eastern corner, in conjunction with the allied forces based on Salonika.