The Sun.
London, England, 1859-05-19 00:00:00

NEWSPAPER POSTAGE TO AUSTRAL'

Yesterday, at 3 o'clock, an influential deputation
from the General Association for the Australian
Colonies, had an interview, by appointment, with
Lord Colchester, the Postmaster-General, at the
Chief office in St. Martin's-le-Grand, on the subject
of the recent proposal, emanating from the Post-
office authorities, to double the postage on news-
papers, sent from this country to the Australian
colonies, via Southampton and Suez. The deputa-
tion c..nsisted of Mr. Stuart A. Donaldson, late
Chief Secretary to the Government of New South
Wales, and Member of the Executive Council ; Mr.
W. C. Haines and Mr. J. Leslie Foster, late Chief
Secretaries to the Government of Victoria ; the Hon.
John Baker, Chief Secretary, and Mr. E. Stephens,
Member of the Legislative Council of South Aus•
tralia ; Mr. W. Archer, Member of the Legislative
Council of Tasmania • , r. Edward Wilson, of the
Melbourne Argus ; Mr. J. A. Youl, Hon. Secretary
of the Association ; and Mr. W. Forlonge, late a
Member of the Legislative Council of Victoria.
Mr. S. A. DONALDSON, addressing his lordship,
said the colonists of the whole group of the Aus-
tralian colonies were deeply interested in the ques-
tion on which they had sought an interview with
him. They had in the early part of the present year
become parties to a contract with the Government
of the mother country for the postal service between
it and the Australian colonies, under which they
had bound themselves to pay £90,000 a year—one
moiety of the whole cost of the service, and they had
not expected it would have been attempted to im-
pose so important a condition, and one so unfavour-
able to them, as the proposal to double the postage
of newspapers going from this country so soon after
the contract had been entered into, if indeed, at any
time such as attempt would have been justifiable.
The colonists would feel agrieved at. the proposed
increase, inasmuch as to the vast numbers of them,
and those the poorer classes, newspapers from
England were comparatively the only means of
communication they had with the mother country.
It was therefore beyond question that the pro-
posal would seriously interfere with their conveni-
ence in that respect. The contract, under which
letters via Southampton and Suez, to Australia
were charged 6d. for postage, and newspapers ld.,
was now in full force, and he trusted on that ac•
count, and for the reasons he had stated, his lord-
ship would see grounds at all events for postponing
theintroduction of the proposed change until the
contract expired, if not for abandoning it altogether.
Mr. L. FOSTER bore testimony to the fact that
the communication between the poorer classes of
colonists and the friends they had left behind in
the mother country was maintained in a far greater
degree through newspapers than by letters; and,
seeing that the tendency of legislation had been to
draw England into closer relationship with her co-
lonies, no opportunity should be lost of keeping
alive the association. He did not think the conve-
nience of the wealthier classes would be interfered
with by the proposed change, but, as he had said,
it would not be so with the humbler orders. The
reason assigned for doubling the postage on news-
papers was that the Pasha of Egypt had increased
the charge for carriage across the Isthmus ; but now
that the railway between Alexandria and Suez had
been completed, lie thought the charge for carriage
across the Isthmus ought, on that account, to have
been reduced instead of increased.
Mr. STEPHENS said so much were the colonists
interested in the transmission of newspapers as a
means of diffusing information, that two of the co-
lonies—South Australia and Tasmania—made no
charge whatever for postage on the newspapers they
sent to England. The poorest person in England
who had a relative in those colonies could receive a
newspaper from him free of all charge. That
transmission of newspapers had been largely recip-
rocated by the humbler classes in England, not-
withstanding the postage charged on newspapers
"sent from this country. It was, indeed, the common
form of communication between the poorer classes,
so separated ; they sent newspapers addressed in
their own handwriting, which was well known to
their relatives,and thus newspapers were made substi-
tutes for letters, on which a much higher rate of
postage was charged. The charge on a newspaper,
via Southampton, had never been more than a
penny; the people of the mother country and the
colonists had been long accustomed to that ; but
now it was proposed to make the charge 2d., with-
out any fair reason that he could see. Australia
had been recently complimented by a distinguished
member of the present Government with being an
integral part of the mother country. His lordship
knew that a newspaper could be sent from one
part of the United Kingdom to the other for a
penny. He (Mr, Stephens) ventured to claim a
similar privilege for the Australian colonies, which
had been designated an integral part of the mother
country, and the more so as they furnished a sub-
sidy of £90,000 towards defraying the cost of the
postal service. He reminded his lordship that
when England wanted the gold of the colonies, or
their men to fight her battles, both were always
forthcoming—(a laugh)—and he thought it but
fair that they should be in this respect placed on a
par with the mother country.
Mr. WILSON said that, having for many years
been connected with the principal newspaper in
Australia, he could speak. from experience of the
enormous increase in the sale of that paper, in-
variably on the day on which the mail left for
England. Their circulation was frequently trebled
and quadrupled on those occasions ; and special
supplements were prepared and published to meet
the demand for intelligence from the colonies to
England. There was the same, if not greater,
eagerness to obtain information through news-
papers on the arrival of a mail from the mother
country ; and to meet that demand some of the
London newspapers, and one or two of those of
Liverpool now published supplements containing
news interesting to the colonies on the days on
which the mails left for Australia.

Mr. BAKER reminded his lordship that hereto-
fore the mails were carried across the Desert on
the backs of camels, but now, since a railway com-
munication had been opened up between Alexan-
dria and Suez, that greater facility of transit ought
to have been attended with a reduction, instead of
an increase of charge.
Lord COLCHESTER, who received the deputation
with much courtesy, said of course he heartily
responded to the sentiment expressed by Mr.
Stephens, that the Australian colonies formed in-
tegral parts of the mother country. The trans-
mission of letters and newspapers, however, from
one part of the United kingdom to the other was
not analogous to their transmission from the
mother country to Australia, regard being had to
the question of distance. A letter was carried
from one part of the United Kingdom to another
fora penny ; but that was not so as between Eng-
land and Australia. He would also remind the
deputation that the proposed increase in the postage
on newspapers referred to India as well as to
Australia, which was quite as much an integral
part of the British Empire. For some time past
newspapers sent to Australia, via Marseilles, had
been subject to an additional charge of one penny,
and all that was now sought was to put those sent
via Southampton, on the same footing. The reason
that there was not a similarity of charge made
originally in both cases was, that formerly the
mails went from England to Australia--one by
way of Suez, and the other by way of the Cape.
Besides, the Post-office was now paying a much
higher charge to the Pasha of Egypt than formerly
for the transit of the mails across the Isthmus. He
explained that the original intention had been
to ' make the proposed increase commence
from the Ist of the present month, but at the
request of some of the metropolitan news-agents,
who had represented to him that their contracts
with their customers in Australia ran from year
to year, he had agreed to postpone its intro-
duction to the Ist of January next. He
concluded by saying that he should take the mat-
ters brought under his notice by the deputation
into consideration before the change in quesion was
made.

The deputation then withdrew, thanking his
lordship for the courteous attention he had paid to
their representations.

THE RIGHT OP MILITARY PICKETS TO SEARCH
PUBLIC-Houses.—A case was adjudicated upon by the
magistrates at Rochester yesterday, in which Mr. Thomas
Mannerings, landlord of the Trumpet public-house, Higl.-
street, Chatham, was charged with having committed an
assault on a private soldier who was one of a picket that had
entered his house for the purpose of seeing if there were
any soldiers there drinking. From the statements made by
the
witnesses who were examined in support of the prose-
cution it appeared that between 10 and 11 o'clock in the
evening one of the pickets that patrol the streets of Chatham
during the night entered the Trumpet public-house for the
purpose of taking out a:soldier who was there, and also to
see if there were any others in the house. As they were
proceeding through the passage towards the tap-room the
landlord adVatmi towards them, and struck one of the sol-
diers a T:ol.6nt aloes in his breast, at the same time calling
him a filthy expression. Defendant prevented the mili-
tary from going any farther into his house, and refused
to allow them to search the rooms unless they first-
sent for the police. The deserter who was there escaped.
For the defence it was urged by a solicitor who ap-
peared for the defendant, that the picket were about
going into the private parlour when defendant gently
put his arm on-the first soldier who entered, and, after tell-
ing him that he should not allow him to go into his private
room, directed him to the tap-room, where the soldiers were
in the habit of going. Mr. Davies, the presiding magis-
trate, said the picket had a perfect right to enter the public-
houses, which would otherwise become the receptacle of all
soldiers who wished to desert. To mark his sense of defen-
dant's conduct, he should fine him the highest penalty of
£5. mo money, was immediately paid.
CRYSTAL PALACE.—FIRST FLOWER SHOW.
SEVEN-AND-SIXPENCE DAY.— May 18.--
2
Admi
6262 esitotonal visitors,.
on p4,4ayment, 2,197 ; ditto by season ticlkeTs
'2,0 5T