The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1880-08-12
New Plan for small, isemlttsnces.
Thssatisfaotionwith which the with


New Plan for small kemlttances.
The satisfaction ith which the with
drawal Of fractional currency in paper
was greeted, ,asfew years ago, was mea-
surately temper cd by regrets for the loss
of convenient means tor remltting
small sums. Fer such purpose coin Is
not at all suitable, and postal-cards are
ut once inconvenicnr and relatively
very costly for small amounts. Pos.
tage stamps Of the larger denominations
might answer the purpose imperfectly,
IL they were exchangeable for stamps
Of smaller value, as It Is thls method of
remitting usually subjects the receiver
to Inconvenience, If mot actual loss,
since few people can make use Of the
larger stamps in any considerable guam
tity. Several more or less clever de-
vices for overcoming the difficulty have
been suggested by correspondents OF
different papers, but none seom to have
received the appreciation Of the postal
authorities. Possibly something more
may come from the plan proposed by
Mr.. .Chetwynd, ,receiver and accountant
general to the British post-otlice. 1t
appears from late report Of the postal
department that large part Of the
1900, 900 money orders issued in the
year ending March, 1879, we're issued
Tor sums for which commission was
less than three pence; and on all such
orders there was al absolute loss to
the departmenU, thus compelling re-
adjustment of the rates. With the
withdrawal Of the lower rates, the
money order ceased to be economical
10 remitters Of small sums, and some
service was urgently called for. Ac-
cordingly, Mr.. Chetwynd, who for
more than forty years has taken Il pro-
nlinent part in the Improvement of the
postal service, and is particularly known
rs the author and joint organizer of
the system Of government savings
banks 80 successful In England, has
suggested system Of post office notes.
AS described by the author of the sys-
tenn, the new note Is designed to COM
Dine the simplicity Of Il postage stamp
as the subject Of an account, with the
advantages of Il small bank post-bill,
Il circular note, and u check issued by
what may be called Il government bank,
and payable ut any one Of the five
thousand Government banks through
out the United Kingdom to the order
Of any person named by tho purchaser
OF the note In writing Oil the back Of it.
10 begin with, it is proposed to issue
four classes Of these notes-namely, for
2s., Cd, 5s., los. and 20s.--at Id. COM
mission for the former two, and ID. the
latter two amounts, and it is !he i'll
tention OF the post office to issue them
in books for use as required, as we'll as
Singly. These notes will differ in
character from our abandoned postal or
fractional currency in several particu-
lars. They will not be legal tender,
and will be limited in their periorl of
instance al open note payable to the
bearer on demand ii note may be crossed
ut once, giving 1t the security of
check similarly dealt with, or it may
be localized IN the same manner rs the
money order, by the simple insertion
or particular post-otllce, at which
alone 1t will then be payable; while
the mention Of the payce's name adds
further security to the note. But,
whether open or otherwise, the postal
note will require TO be indorscd by the
bearer before 1t will be cashcd, so that
any fraudulent attempt to get payment
of 1t will thus Involve forgery, and be
subject to heavy penalties A bill to
introdnce this system was brought be-
fore Parliament Just before the recent
dissolution; and the scheme will doubt
less be- brought up again ut an early
date.