HENNIKER HEATON HONOURED

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25, 30 January 1912, Page 7

HENNIKER HEATON HONOURED

THE MARTIN LUTHER OF THE POST OFFICE. MADE A BARONET. By Telegraph.— Press Asbociation.— Copyright, (Received January 30 2 8.10 a.m.) LONDON, 29th January. A baronetcy ha» been conferred upon Mr. Jiemriker Beaton. (Received January 50, 12A6 p.m.) LONDON, 29th' January. It is officially announced that Mr. Henniker Heaton'a baronetcy was not' included in the New ¥ear list owing t<> his absence. Some years ago (it was stated in a recent English Sketch of Mr. Henniker Heaton) an Englishman was looking after his business at a station iar "up couhtry" in New South Wales. He was talking with his men when the mail arrived. Few of them received letters, aud the lucky few read their news for the benefit of the rest, who took as keen an interest in the welfare of the old folk at Home as if they were relations of their dwn. The incident made a deep impresfiion on the Englishman's mind. A few years later he ediue Home, and chanced to enter a- village post office, -where a woman was enquiring the postage to Australia. She could not afford the requisite 6d, and the Englishman paid it fo: her. He learned subsequently from, the parson of the parish that this outlay brought the old lady a remittance of £5 by return post, for mother and son had at last been brought into communication. The Englishman laid these things up in his heart, and determined to make it his mission in life to cheapen the means of communication between t,he old folk at Home and their kitch and kin beyond the seas. The hero of this pathetic tale is Mr. John Henniker Heaton, who had fono to seek his fortune in New South Vales, and who married the only daughter of the iate Mr. Samuel Bennett, of Sydney. He returned to Europe, and got himself elected in 1885 Conservative M.P. for Canterbury. But his real constituency is a larger one. He is the member for postal reform, the Martin Luther of the poet office, and his assiduity has extorted from successive Postmasters innumerable reforms, including the Imperial penny postage scheme, which he carried in 1898, the introduction of telegraphic money orders, parcel post to France, and any number of other boons. His public ser vices have been recognised by the freedom of the City of London. He is a native of Rochester, was educated at King's College, and was born in 1848. Mr. Henniker Heaton did not contest his old seat at the last elections, for which, indeed, he .had been reelected unopposed on four successive occasibns. He was recently the recipient of a complimentary address from the Lord Mayor of London, on behalf of numerous public and commercial institutions. The now Baronet is at present in Australia. Interviewed on his arrival at Fremantle, Mr. Heaton said that he thought that penny-a-word cables would soon be in force throughout the Empire. He said that we would never have a perfectly developed and unavailable Empire until we annihilate time as regards communication. He would not be satisfied until he wajs able to fable twelve words for one shilling between England and Australia and vice versa. It was within the range o! practicability.