NEW ZEALAND SPECTATOR AND Cook's Strait Guardian. Saturday, May 16, 1857.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume XII, Issue 1230, 16 May 1857, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND SPECTATOR AND Cook's Strait Guardian. Saturday, May 16, 1857.

A short time since we published, from the Auckland Government Gazette, the rates of postage on letters and newspapers from New Zealand to Great Britain which were brought into operation, as expressed by the notice, “ in conformity with arrangements made with the Imperial Government by authority of the General Assembly and we return to the subject for the purpose of supplying more information than the notice wethen published con, veyed. According to the old plan, the postage paid in the colony on a letter from New Zealand to the United Kingdom was 2d„ and a further postage of 6d. was paid by the person receiving the letter, which defrayed the cost of ship postage and inland postage in the United Kingdom. But, on the re-establish-ment of Steam Postal Communication with the Australian Colonies, in order to carry out the proposed plan of sharing the cost of this service between the Mother-Country and the Australian Colonies, it was decided that the postage on all letters should be paid in advance, with a view of simplifying the accounts, and facilitating the proposed arrangements. Under the old system the postage paid on a letter not exceeding half an ounce, from New Zealand to the mother country, was Bd.; of which 2d. was paid in the colony; under the new scale the postage on the same letter is (id., to be paid in advance, and the amount received in postage is retained by the colony towards defraying its proportion of the amount paid to the Australian Steam Packet Company for conveying the mails. In despatch of Mr. Rowland Hill (the Secretary of the Post Office) conveying the instructions of the British Government for carrying out the present system the following directions are given :—

“ It will, of course, be mutually understood, IM letters g T om the Vnited Kingdom shall be delirlM in any part of New Zealand for the payment made i» this country, and vice versa, that letters posted in Zealand shall be delivered in any part of the United Kingdom without any additional charge beyond tint In Mr. Stafford’s circular notifying the establishment of the present system of postage it is stated, that “ all letters, newspapers, and book packets received in mails from the United Kingdom will be delivered free at dll the Post Offices of the General Government of the Colony. At first sight there may not appear any great difference between the direction of the Colonial Secretary of New Zealand and the Secretary of the General Post Office, but practically there is a great difference, as will endeavour shortly to explain. Under tie Local Posts Act passed in the last session o the General Assembly, permission was gi' cn to the Superintendents of Provinces to establish local posts, and to fix rates of post age in. addition to those now in force to deW the cost of the service, so that the present rate now paid would bo retained by the Gene! Government, and the additional nites would receivedby the Provincial Government by wM

he cost of the Local Posts is to bo defrayed. At Auckland. Nelson, and Canterbury, the Local Posts Act has been brought into operation, but in this Province the Superintendent declined to avail himself of its provisions. The following passage in his opening address to the Council at its last session explains his reasons for not doing so “lam inclined to believe that the revenue thus . I would Bcarcelv be equal to the cost of collection, ”'at any rate, tlint it would not in any degree com. ensate for the trouble and annoyance it would cause to the settlers; and I would therefore suggest whether it would not be better to defray the expense of all local posts for the present out of the General Revenue of the Province.” In Auckland where the Local Posts Act is in force the effect is, that instead of letters from pie United Kingdom being delivered free from anv postage, as directed in Mr. Rowland Hill's despatch, a postage of two ponce for each letter weighing half-an-ounce (and so on in proportion to the weight) is charged every where except on those delivered at the General Post Office at Auckland. In Nelson and Canterbury also, where the Local Posts Act is introduced, an additional postage is charged on all letters except those delivered at the General Post Offices in those Provinces. So that the operation of the Local Posts Act has been to establish an additional rate of postage to

that intended by the General Post Office, and is therefore in direct contravention of its instructions. If this Act had been in force in this Province, the English letters now delivered free of any charge nt the Hutt and Wanganui, and any other office established by the Provincial Government, would be subject to an additional rate of postage, and all other letters received in the colony would also be subject to an additional rate of postage to that now paid ; and while the cost of local posts would be thrown on the Provincial revenue, the present rates of postage would be paid over to the General Government. Now, in a now country especially, it seems desirable that the rates of postage should be kept as low as possible, and that the means of postal communication should be extended as much as circumstances will admit, and the increased expense provided for out of the General revenue, rather than by increased rates of postage. The Local Posts Act, then, appears to be a step backwards rather than a step in advance, and besides being in opposition to the instructions from homo, instead of simplifying or making uniform the postal system of the colony, serves only to render it more cumbersome, complicated, and expensive. There are several other serious objections of a practical nature to which it is liable, to which we have not adverted, our object at present being to draw attention to its operation in increasing the rate of postage in the colony without conferring an equivalent benefit, and to the fact that it is not "in conformity with the arrangements made with the Imperial Government.” We hope, therefore, it will not be brought into force in this Province.