PENNY POSTAGE WANTED.

Evening Star, Issue 8116, 16 January 1890, Page 1

PENNY POSTAGE WANTED.

There is, we have a right to assume, little doubt that the Colonial Treasurer will be in a position to meet Parliament with a good surplus in the accounts of the current financial year. &o much is this taken for granted that we hear of divers politicians—members of the Legislature and others—discussing in Wellington recently how the moneys are to be appropriated, and kindly suggesting for the benefit of the Cabinet half a -dozen, more or less, insane projects for muddling fiscal matters generally. Sit Harry Atkinson, we imagine, is quite able to manage his own business ; and even the very novel experience of not having a deficit to provide for will hardly throw him oft' his head. The temptation may be strong to purchase ephemeral popularity by the remission of taxation; but it is sufficiently in evidence already that the question would prove a very vexed one as to where the remission should be applied—whether to director indirect levies—and as to the proportion in the first case and the particular items in the second. The times are not, we think, ripe for the actual abandonment of any of the present sources of revenue, unless a fiscal revolution were possible ; and prudence dictates that more might bo sacrificed by immediate relief to the very small extent which could be contemplated than would be compensated by the benefit to the people. Under these circumstances, we would venture to suggest that advantage should bo taken of the favorable financial position to effect a reform of the very greatest importance, which might be expected to entail temporary loss of revenue—to the extent, perhaps, of ■£50,000 —during the ensuing year. We refer to the establishment of the penny postage system throughout the Colony. The tale of fifty years is now completed since Sir Rowland Hill, in the face of very strong official opposition, saw his beneficent scheme of cheap postage given effect to in the United Kingdom. Economists of the narrowminded school were aghast at the material loss of revenue which they deemed to be certain, whilst departmental wiseacres predicted that the machinery of the Post Office must break down under the increased strain. People were more conservative in those days than they are now, and there was a very general prejudice against any new departure in politics or administration which affected public opinion even in this matter, where there could be little question as to the popular advantage. We find such a man as Sydney Smith, for instance, declaring that “ a million of revenue is given up in the nonsensical penny post scheme.” The result is now history. The new Post Office Act came into force on January 8, 1840: and although there was, as might reasonably have been expected, an immediate falling off in the revenue, there was a recovery to the extent of 63 per cent, within nine months, and within a comparative!} • short period the revenue exceeded that of 1839. The expansion of business may be understood when we state that in this last year of the heavy postage the total number of letters delivered in Great Britain and Ireland was a little more than 82,000,000, including at least 5,000,000 which were franked by members of Parliament and other privileged persons. In 1888 the number of inter-kingdom letters alone was above 1,200,000,000. It would be difficult to estimate what cheap postage has done for the Home Country in the strengthening of family ties—the basis upon which the social fabric rests—the diffusion of knowledge, and the education of the masses in literature, art, and politics. To this general enlightenment is due the marvellous progress of the country during the last half century, the gradual emancipation of labor from the thraldom which was a remnant of the feudal ages, and the growth of the democracy, whose influence now over■weighs that of the formerly privileged classes. The penny post has been a powerful auxiliary to every movement in favor of reform. The Post Office is now thoroughly the people’s department, spreading light and learning through every quarter of the three kingdoms. In the Australasian colonies the attempt at high postage rates such as prevailed in the Old Country previously to 1840 was never made; but the immediate exigencies of finance, and the very large expenditure involved in establishing and maintaining postal services, have prevented the adoption of the English system in its entirety. Victoria has opened the new year by establishing the penny post throughout her boundaries; and, in anticipation of largely increased business, the staff of the Post Office has been considerably augmented. We do not think that the Victorian Government need have any fear as to the financial result. The average number of letters posted bv each person in that Colony in 1888 was forty-five; and we predicate that this year’s returns will show an advance of at least a third on that average. The increase cannot be expected to rival that of the United Kingdom in the year immediately following the reform of the postal rates, since those were actually prohibitive to the poorer classes; but the difference between 2d and Id will be found to be material.

Within a brief period we shall be celebrating in New Zealand the jubilee of the foundation of the Colony. Could this jubilee be better marked in our history than by following the example of the Home Country and Yictoria in the inauguration of the penny postage system 1 The loss to the revenue—which would certainly be only temporary, and not extend over two years at the very outside—can be provided for out of the surplus at the disposal of the Treasurer, and would only indeed require a proportion of the moneys thus available. In the year 1888-89 £160,000 was realised by the

Bale of stamps used for postage. Penny postage for letters within the Colony might possibly reduce this amount for the first year by one-third ; but we feel confident the deficit would soon be recovered, and that, in the course of two or three years, the net receipts of the department would be augmented. The opportunity is altogether an excellent one—the time propitious. What, indeed, could be a happier jubilee offering by the Government and the Legislature to the people than the doubling of the facilities for correspondence by enabling the penny stamp to cover letter postage throughout New Zealand 1 As we have shown, there is —thanks to the surplus—no financial difficulty in the way ; whilst there can be no difference of opinion as to the public advantage.