Postal Charges.

Evening Star, Issue 17924, 21 March 1922, Page 4

Postal Charges.

A controversy of a kind now unfortunately, only too common is being carried on in Britain over the Post Office. When national expenditure is heavy and Budgets refuse to balance, the combination of political and departmental vision which ordains these things Hies at once to tho most obvious form of raising money. This is to iiici'OiiM.l the charges ma-do to customers of the- "great indispensable trading departments (if State. This was done in wartime. 'Hie much-prized penny post made a speedy and undignified but very much regretted exit. Prospects of its return grow more remote with the passing of years. The tendency is so much.-the other way that Lord Blyth, in backing up the cft'orls of the of British Chambers of Commerce to get cheaper postal charges, eajd : " Tlio adoption, of penny postage in 1340 was looked on by many as tlio greatest human dolivcranco since the Battlo of Waterloo. In liko manner the raconqupst of penny postage in 1922 might justly he regarded as the greatest victory in the cause of peace einco the end of the war." British postal rates used to bo >jd for a postcard and Id for an inland letter or one within tho Empire. During the war they we-ro raised to Id for-postcards, 2d for inland, and 2£d for foreign correspondence. Since the war they were again raised to ljd for postcards and 3d for foreign correspondence, while the' postage on newspapers was raised from id to Id, But these high rates do not pay. During the financial year 1920-21 tho working of the Post Offico showed a loss of £6,500,000. This induced the experiment, of the latest rise, and it ia too soon to state yet what tho results havo been—the- financial results, that is, for tho effect on the publio temper is unmistakable. Mr Kellaway, tho Postmaster-General, is probably tho most unpopular Minister'in Britain. He, however, recognises that ho will have to reduce his unpopularity with the publio by increasing it within his own department. He says it is certain that there will bo a reduction of several million pounds in Post Office expenditure in the coming financial year. Then, and not till then, will he he able to contemplate a reduction of postal charges. It is evidently his view that, apart perhaps from tho waste implied by tho possibility of .making such a cut in expenditure, the

chief reason for the insufficient revenue is the tnvdo- depression, and ho hints that only a revival of trade will enable the department to bo onto more self-support-ing on a lower scalo of charges. Tho almost universal answer to him has been that a reduction ■in post-age rates is an indlspensablo preliminary stop towards a revival of trade and employment, that high rate have accentuated tho trade depression, and that a return to the penny post would stimulate business enterprise to an extent almost incredible, arid at the same time lilt the .Post Ofiioe from tho invidious position of being a burden on the Exchequer. This is the controversy, arising from the different points of view of departmental administrator and general public, with which every conmrunity is becoming very familiar. It resolves itself into a dispute as to which is cause and which is effect. So far experiment to settle tho dispute has all gone one way —tho departmental way. Some bold administrator may presently arise in some self-governing country and givo the fiber method a trial; but there seems a strange diffidence about this kind of pioneering work in public affairs. Only tho other day a feeler was put out on behalf of tho New Zealand Post and Telegraph Department in tho matter of telephone charges—for such we suppose tho message emanating from Christdrureh to have been. There was a prompt official disclaimer, possibly stimulated by tho storm of opposition, embodying a general vein of resolve to cut, the number of telephone > subscriptions down to a minimum if the' now Scale came into operation. And while on this subject it is perhaps opportune to refer to that form of extortion by which telephone subscriptions areregulated by the mileage from the exchange. -In what other form of reticulated service does this system apply? The users of gas, water, or electric current are not penalised according to tho length of their mains or wires. It is quite certain that if mileage charges wore to remain superimposed on 'subscription rates on anything like the scalo lately threatened tho telephone cables in tho outlying districts, would contain a great many more unconnected wires than they do even now.