The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1885-04-14 00:00:00

brut t on* Expos.

DORCHESTER, APRIL 14th, IWO.

POSTAL RIFORM4.

The Telegraphs Amendment Bill,ei it stand., upon
the motion to read it a second time, will effect some I
little reform, but not much, in the telegraphic %service. '
At present any number of words not exceeding twenty
may be despatched in the United Kingdom for In.,
the addresses of the sender and recipient not being
reckoned. The modification which the Postmaster.
General proposes is, that twelve words% may be tient for
61, with a penny for every two additional worths, but
the addresses of sender and recipient are both to count.
The yractiesl result of this would be that telegrams
will in very many cameo be very little cheaper than
they now are : in some canes about the lame; and in a
few caws, where the addressee are long, actually
dearer. The more the new ardent in examined the lens
Nipponese, be the reform it will effect. What the pub.
lie ham long demanded is the simple reduction of the
Od. to fel. for twenty words, leaving the addressee
free an at present. Mr. Shaw Isefevre does not see he
way clew to effect this.; but hi.. reasoning Ini the
matter *cents to un very defective. He shown that
there in not much profit to the Government out I A the ,
present %%indent, to which we reply that thin in niainly
because telegrams% are no dear. And then he ;pen on
to use exactly the name kind %if argument that long
ago was brought to bear on Howland scheme of
uniform penny postage—arguments which, the reader
need nit be reminded, proved utterly futile Ando:keep-

Sive. "If the Government give for Gd." says the
rostasamter.General, 'what they now give for Is.,
they will receive half the money they now receive, yet
the cost will remain the same." This kind of svlto.
sent has Leen Iss/ied over and over again, in the
postal system itself, in railway, steamboat, omnibus
and tramcar fares, in the prior of newspapers, and in
hundred other departments. Mr. Shaw Lefevre

_
appears yet to have to learn the eletaeatary lesson
that three aixpencee are more than one shilling,
while the probability is that if telegrams were re-
duced from in. to id., with the ddresses free, as now,
at least four telegram.; would be iwilt where there net
present hut one. Equally unsatisfactory is the Post-
master-General's reckoning as to theaddr‘wws. Ile says
they will average live words, which will loess seven
Words for the message. Bat to send two adilmoies in
five worth' will be an extremely pestling problem.
liver where the sender confines himself to the sur-
name it will be very difficult to give the recipient's
muse and addrasa in four words, seeing that his
ehristian and surname, the number of the holive, the
IMMO of the street and the town—frequently with the
county, as there are, for example, so many Newports
—will be necessary. When the motion for the genital
reading of this Bill cone's I M Lord .1 oil 11
who was Postmaster-General under the late Got em-
inent, will move an amendment, that addresses shall
be free. la politics the former and the present
Postmaster•Grueral are wide as the poles asunder ;
but this will he in All respect a IF.litical qinstion, but
simply • great commercial and social ime, and it is
islosintely certain that Lord John will hats a gnat
litany supporters. lie will, 1 course, argue that the
I,reuent propoaal out :
that it dies not eels. up to what Mr. Shaw ev re
led the public to expect ; and that is not what Mr.
raweett would have given had he lived--Lord John
Maniere will al.. make a strong isiiat of the confu-
sion, delay, and failure that will inevitably ensue. from
the attempt to cut short the addrews of the receiver, I
All this is obvious and we trust tliat Mr. Shaw•
I.efes re will siv• the wisdom of giving way. The

right bonintrable gentlennut ha. recently .43611 that
in.i. vestoidering a ref. ml in the parcel .y.tetn
and it, adatotat ion tii interinttiiinal invert:lce.
Thin ii tug.i.factwry, hir thi .44 • reform. are •li
wetted. The parcel hithert.. not 6411, to
nay the leaat, a great inicc.ni in it.elf, thetigh
intlirectly it has limited the railway and carrying cob

panics to mho. their rates. That the tumid post
ha. 1,1,0r0d id so little Isenetit to the public has mainly
iwen owing to its high rates, nig .ceding 111.. 3.1. ;
aletween I.lb. and 311., C.d.; between 311.. and Nllsi.
Id.; between :Alai. and 711.. 1.. We would stigge.t
Sem rates only —under 311ss. 3d. ; lstween a 11.... and
711.. tid. Thea the Wird 1..4 w,0.1l Leeotito
popular, and we believe would mien' far greater net
profit than at present. .1s to an international parcel
post, it is as obi ious 3 reptirrilittlt of the ur,eitt
age so international postage.