Fewer cards for Britons

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33981, 23 October 1975, Page 6

Fewer cards for Britons

(N.Z.P.A. Sta!f Crspdt) LONDON. With a new minimum postage rate of 6 J pence (N.Z. 13c) there will be fewer Christmas cards gracing British mantelpieces this year. And despite a plea by a group of Conservative Opposition backbenchers that fewer cards will mean “hardship and unhappiness,” the Post Office has refused to make the nation a Christmas gift of a cut-price card rate. “Ebenezer Scrooge is alive and well and living at 23

Howland Street, London, WIP 6HQ — headquarters of the Post Office,” commented the “Daily Mirror.” “Who else but that stonyhearted skinflint would be so determined to take the spirit out of Christmas?” Turning down the proposal, the Post Office said a suggested five pence (NZlOc) Christmas card rate would cost £3m to £sm (about SNZ6m to $10m). HUGE LOSS Faced with a loss of up to £som (nearly SNZIOOm) in the current financial year, the Post Office could not; afford to play Santa Claus, a; spokesman said. “Thanks to the Post Office, someone, i wants a Christmas card re won’t get this year,” the; '“Mirror” said. Those who do get cards; may get them delivered by unorthodox means and byvarious routes, according tp reports. Many people have written to newspapers saying they will deliver as many cards as possible by hand, either personally or in batches sent to a friend or relative who lives close to other recipients. And one report has suggested that thousands of cards, perhaps several million, will be mailed cheaply to British addresses from the Channel Islands, Ireland and the Isle of Man. The report said students and expatriate workers going home to Ireland, Jersey or the Isle of Man would be taking handfuls of card to mail back to Britain at the cheaper rates. (Note: It will cost New Zealanders in Britain 13 pence (nearly NZ26c) to send cards home by airmail. The surface mail rate is 10 pence (about NZ2Oc) but that closed a week ago.