PENNY POSTAGE.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 13714, 22 April 1910, Page 6

PENNY POSTAGE.

Mr Henniker Heaton, the apostle of cheap postage, would probably retire from political life >well satisfied if the British PostmasterGeneral could see his way to introduce penny postage with the Continent. The fact that a letter from London to Paris costs 2sd in postage, when one can he sent frcta London to New Zealand for a penny, has been one of Mr Henniker Heaton's choicest illustrations of the absurd anomalies of the present system. In a few months Westminster will know " the Postmaster- " General for the Empire" no more, for Mr Henniker Heaton has intimated his intention of retiring after the impending dissolution. Ho is over sixty, and the need of rest from a very active life is becoming urgent. In a letter to his constituents, he says that when the time comes for him to retire he trill "have the consolation of knowing "that in the field of postal and tele- " graph reform much has been accom- " plished, while still greater things are "on. the eve of realisation." This is modestly put. No one living has done so much for cheaper postal communication as Mr Henniker Heaton. "I found " myself a small cog-wheel" in a mighty "machine," he has'-said of hi early days in Parliament, "so I • <ie"termined to specialise." There was a fine field to his hand. He had been struck by the harsh way in which the high postal rates pressed on poor

colonists who wished to communicate with their relatives at Home, and he determined to make -postal and telegraphic reform his life's work. Having wisely equipped himself with an intimate knowledge of all the postal systems of the world, he proceeded to worry Postmasters-General, especially tho gentlemen who presided over the British Post Office. Voted a crank and nuisance at first, he has lived to see penny postage established between Great Britain and the colonies and Great Britain and America, and the adoption of dozens of other reforms that he advocated. His achievements make a fine illustration of what a man of ability and perseverance can do in public life if he masters a subject thoroughly, and never allows himself to be disheartened by incompetence or red-tapeism. With money so scarco in the British Treasury, the present time is no doubt inopportune for the establishment of penny postage with the Continent. That there would be a loss in the first year at least is admitted by Mr Henniker Heaton himself. But his estimates differ very much from the official figures. Mr Samuel calculates that a loss of £380,000 would be entailed by the adoption of the system, but he seems to take too little account of tlie great increase in letter-writing that would certainly result from the cheapening of the rates. Mr Henniker Heaton puts the immediate loss down at £100,000, and no doubt is confident that before long the change would pay handsomely. The extension of penny postage can hardly be delayed much longer. Tho British Post Office i 3 a great deal more progressive than it used to bo, and Mr Samuel, its new head, is a very able business man. Tho chances are decidedly in favour of Mr Henniker Heaton living to sco the reform that he has so much at heart put into practice. .