The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-03-22 00:00:00

CDe (Stoarbribge Obseraer

SATURDAY, MARCH 22ad, 1884.

PARCELS BY POST.

IT is so seldom in the history of human affairs
that any newly-started institution either answers
the expectations of its promoters or the pro•
phecies of its opponents, that not much wonder
need be felt that the Parcel Post can be included
in this description. It is now nearly eight
months since it was first possible to send a pack-
age of any reasoueble weight through the medium
of the postal authorities, and although all the
figures upon which a judgement can be based
are not yet available to the public, the fact is now
sufficiently clear that they will reveal a state of
things which will disappoint both Mr. Fawcett
and those who foretold certain failure. The
number of parcels which have been carried by
the new system has been very nearly as great as
it was estimated it would be, but, as the average
weight of each is lower, the revenue received
from their conveyance is not as large as was
anticipated. The latter fact is likely to impress
the general public more than the former, because
the Post Office has for such a loag time been a
money-making department that it seems almost
like a confession of failure for it to admit that
on any one branch of its multifarious concerns
it is losing rather than gaining. But it should
not be forgotten in this relation that the penny
post it elf—one of the greatest blessings a pablie
department ever conferred upon the people—did
not pay its way for the first few years, and that the
months Government telegraph system—which has
become such an ingrained portion both of our
business and our private life —has never yet
been so remunerative as to pay a fair rate of in-
terest upon the large sum expended in buying
up the rights of the old companies. It does not,
therefore follow that, because the first eight
show a its existence the Parcel Post does not
profit, it is therefore to be regarded as even
partially a failure. Had the public altogether,
or nearly altogethar ignored it, it might with
some truth have been urged that Mr. Fawcett's
scheme was not a success, but the fact that, as
has been said, the number of packages sent very
nearly equals a sanguine estimate, shows that
the public appreciate the new system, The
further fact that a loss has been caused by the
circumstance that the average weight of the
parcels is leas than had been expected is
(paradoxical as at first eight it may seem) an
argument in favour of its being considered a
success rather than a failure. It shows that the
Parcel Post has met a distinct want in the ships
of the cheap and certain conveyance of sna!l
packages. The existing companies had been
able to provide, and to provide eel], for the
larger parcels, and that they will be ale to
continue to do so admits of no disputl. But it
was always diffictO, before the Parcel Post was
established, to declide what to do with a package
of a pound or two in weight which had to be
sent, for instance, frt m a remo:43 vill?ge in
Cornwall to one evally remote in Westmore-
land. Even if it had been wished to despatch
it from one large town to another there would
have been a certain amount of difficulty in doing
so on the part of a private person desiring to
send only that one ; but in the case suggested it
would have been well nigh impossible. The
resulting fact is this (and those who had impar •
tially thought out the matter had suspected it
iron the beginning), there is ample room for
both the Government sys Lem and the private
companies to flourish. The former is likely
more and more to absorb the swill parcels, the
latter will become more and more restricted to
the sending of the larger and the more profitable
*nes. The State has, and can have, no mono-
poly, but the fruit of its competition, if well.
directed, will be that no loss will accrue to the
national rovanua, and that parcels of all sorts
vein be more cheaply cud exi)edicienaly de-
spatched.