ABOLITION OF THE PENNY POSTAGE ON NEWSPAPEES.

Colonist, Volume VIII, Issue 779, 11 April 1865, Page 1

ABOLITION OF THE PENNY POSTAGE ON NEWSPAPEES.

{From The Colonist, March 14.)

The Ministry have abolished this ill-considered impost ; and on and after 21st March current, newspapers will, as heretofore, be conveyed by post free of charge. We may remind our readers that the former rules as to date of paper will from that time apply. Newspapers for England or the other Colonies may be posted free of charge at any time, and however old the date; but newspapers for any place within the Colony of New Zealand, must be posted within seven days of their date, otherwise they are liable to a penny of postage.

Now that the Ministry has rescinded this tax, the Houses of Assembly ought to take steps to abolish

Tuesday, April 11,1865.

the power which the Postage Act of 1858 gives to the Governor (which means hi? ministers, or, as in this case, the minister of the post-office department) of levying a new tax at the pleasure or caprice of such minister. The exercise of this unconstitutional power, at the time the- tax was levied, was by no means straightforward, seeing that the order for its exaction was issued almost immediately after the prorogation of the Assembly, the tribunal which alone possesses legal powers of taxation. It would only have been judicious, not to say strictly constitutional, to have referred the matter to that body. And we hope that on no future occasion will a power of levying any tax be delegated to the Governor or his ministers. That is a power which rightly belongs to the Assembly, and it is too important to be delegated.