PENNY POSTAGE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13485, 11 May 1907, Page 5

PENNY POSTAGE.

PROPOSAL BY SIR JOSEPH WARD. (Received May 10, 10.48 p.m.) - London, May 10. -• Sir Joseph Ward moved, "That in view of the social, political, material, and commercial, advantages accruing from systems of international penny postage, the Conference recommends to the Britisß Government the advisability, if and when suitable opportunity occurs, of approaching the Governments of other States belonging to the Postal Union, in order to obtain a further reduction in postage rates, with a view to a more general, and if possible universal, adoption of a penny rate." ! . ' He urged that the British Post-master-General should, make progress on wider lines. It was ridicu* lous that letters should cost two-pence-halfpenny to cross the channel to France, a distance of 21 miles, while between England and NewZealand either way the cost was a penny. , - . '" * - • / The Postmaster-General (Mr. Sydney Buxton) agreed with the resolution conditionally that England should not be pressed as to the time for bringing the change into operation. His sympathies were with the proposal. Recent postal concessions 'made by England had involved a revenue loss of £190,000. Universal penny postage would mean a further reduction, in revenue of £4.50,000. He referred to the work of Sir Joseph Ward at the Congress at Rome in complimentary terms, and said he hoped Australia would come into line, with other portions of the Empire.. Sir Joseph Ward replied that it was undesirable for the Post Office to be regarded as a taxing machine. He was satisfied that a recovery of the loss under universal penny postage would occur, as it had done in Canada and New Zealand when both adopted it locally. He feared some j fine morning to awake to find that i America and France or America and ! Germany had entered on a subsi- ! diary agreement for penny postage. | He urged Mr. Buxton to. be ready for a reform which must come. The resolution was carried.