“The Press” In 1866

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31139, 16 August 1966, Page 14

“The Press” In 1866

August 17 NEWSPAPER POSTAGE—The “Wellington Independent” says:—As our readers are probably aware, the postage on newspapers going by way of Panama is already one penny, but will it be believed that an attempt is going to be made to raise it to threepence? The newspaper proprietors of course object to the increase is one man, but they do not stand alone, for the public will certainly support them in this instance. As was pointed out by Mr Fitz Gerald in the House on Thursday, unusual facilIMlja ities have always been afforded, for HHH obvious reasons, in every civilised country for transmission of newspapers by the post, and manv of the poorer classes m this colony,very often communicate

with their friends at home merely by sending them a newspaper; but the rich transmit papers home as well as the poor, and we presume that even they would put one stamp on them with much more satisfaction than they would three. Besides, we don’t see how the Government want more money. Mr Jollie estimates the expenditure at a little more than a million, for which his ways and means are to be, so he says, about a million and a-quarter. Why on earth then, does he want to tax the newspapers any more? In truth, this proposal is only another act in the iniquitous crusade which has been instituted against ihe press by a Ministry of financial quacks smarting under merited criticism.