POSTAGE.

New Zealand Gazette and Wellington Spectator, Volume IV, Issue 319, 27 January 1844, Page 4

POSTAGE.

To Subscribers, other Newspaper Establishments, and Commanders of Vessels.— In our paper of September 30, we inserted the latest regulations about Postage. For the convenience of our mercantile friends, we have printed them upon a half sheet of paper, and they can now be conveniently posted in an office for general reference.

We cannot ourselves gather from the regulations the postage chargeable upon colonial papers posted at Wellington, but we have been informed that the sum chargeable is one penny per paper. This is a heavy tax, and indeed we suspect the regulations will be found generally to bear severely upon the colonists. One penny each will amount to eight shillings and eight pence per annum upon our paper. This sum we shall be obliged to charge quarterly in advance for papers ordered to be sent out of the colony, by persons resident here. More than one year since we announced that we would not supply papers to parties residing out of the colony, unless such subscribers arranged for the payment for them through an agent here. Only *wo foreign subscribers have attended to this notice, and the heavy expence of postage to which we shall be subject, makes it absolutely necessary for us now -to carry our notice into effect. In future English subscribers who have not paid their subscriptions in accordance with our notice, and who desire to have our Gazette must apply to our London Agent, Mr. Bowler, at the New Zealand Company's Office, jjondon, to whom we have been forwarding for some lime past and to whom We shall continue to forward fifty Gopies of the Gazette. The only difference will be th:s, that heretofore we have sent them through ihe post, and now we must send them by private opportunity, as it may offer, of which the Postage Regulations permit ; they will consequently not be obtained so frequently. As we shall Have to pay postage on all papers we send to or receive from the colonies, we must decline the greater part of our exchange papers, as the tax would fall very severely upon our small establishment. Those who cease, after this to receive our paper, will please therefore to understand our reason as now given.

We have beeri in the habit of giving our paper to the masters of all ships in harbour. This has been a heavier tax than many would suppose 1 , and the tax has been the more felt as the masters of ships have rarefy forwarded us papers in return, or afforded us information of any description. To such commanders as send us papers, or render us useful information, we shall be happy still to give the Gazette ; but the heavy expense of postage to which we shall now be exposed, makes it necessary for u» to economise all the means in our power. We therefore announce that henceforward this custom terminates.