Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1853-04-09

mates, to four times as many 60 through the post
Office.
founl for the anomalies inconvenience, and eyasions
which exist is admitted by every one, although there
will doubtless be some diversity Of opinion as 10 the
/ exac plan to be adopted
system would seem to point at TO the adoption OF
very low uniform rate, together with prepayment, or,
in otter words to colonial penny postage, and the use
of stamps as in the United Kingdom.
Iii be objected that il would be unjust to charge the
same for letter going TO Australia for going into
the next town. or into the next street. the
is that is quite mpracticabe 10 arrange the charge
In exlct proportion the distance travelled and the
duty performed that the extra incurred by distance
is SO ma be scarcely appreciable while the pre-
paraton the rails and the delivery Of the letters is
the SINE in all cases. that the proposed rate of one
penny per half would be equal TO e3OO ton sup
posing all letters full weight and lastly, that the
simplicity of uniform penny rate would be OF such
great practical Importance TO outweigh all other con-
siderations. =
Sucl rate Of postage to the colonies would not be
without precedent From the year 1919 10 1888 the post
age Ceylon Maurtus the East Indies the Cape of
Good Hope by private ship, only twopence per let
ter NJ to three ounces IN weight
And IT must not be forgotten that DOCKS pamphlets
and even manuscripts be sent at the rate OF I'd for
eight nearly all colonies, while twoounce
pamphlet newspaper OF any weight can be sent to
the United States of America for Id.
In the discussion of this subject frequent reference
made to the fact that Government expends upwards Of
eS00000 year for the packets in which part OF the
ocean mails carried and il is argued that therefore
lover postage advisable financial grounds 1t
is wei known however, that the subsidies paid for
other very important objects besides the conveyance OF
the mails and consequently the whole cost Of these
packets charged by Government as 1t ought to be- not
the post Office account but to that OF the 4dmTdHy II
the packets maintained solely for the purposes OF the
post Office the of e240,000 per annum would GER
tsny not be paid for the Indian packets which do
not and could have been expected to than
q tenth part of that SUM.
In financial view the point to be considered IS how
would the proposed affect the actual from
colonial letters? That has already been stated being
less than goo 600 per annum equal to the increase
in the nett income of the post Office in 1851 compared
with 1850 This is the whole amount that could possibly
be endangered by the change.
The author then entered at length into the why
colonial penny postage should be established and said
in conclusion Looking all these facts, is it fair TO
suppose that the of colonial postage would he re-
duced one-half? And that is less than the average
annual increase in the general income Of the post office
for the last thirteen years and therefore such reduc
ton could not be looked upon actual sacrifice of
venue bat only the most temporary check to ra
pidy ~ growing increase of revenue
Besides it must not be forgotten that revenue is not
the main object of the post Office for, in the words OF
the commissioners of post Office inquiry " the safe and
speedy conveyance of letters for the benefit Of trade and
commerce was the primary consideration with the Gov
ernment in the establishment of the General Post Office
This also the reasoning of the committee OF 1888,
and the adoption Of penny postage was the result
Is not the demand for penny colonial postage equally
logical and practical when il is that its establish
could possibly any reduction OF the pre-
sent nett revenue Of that Department?