OUR PENNY STAMP.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1702, 19 March 1913, Page 4

OUR PENNY STAMP.

Sir,—l do not desire to take part in tho discussion concerning tho design of our ■penny stamp, but it lias always seemed to me that a portion of the lettering is calculated to convey a false impression to young Neiv Zealanders as to the part which their country has played in the institution of universal penny postage. So far as Imperial penny postage is concerned, New Zealand really took a back seat. The facts may be found in the Encyclopaedia Britaunica, under "Post and Postal Service." In 1597 an Imperial Postal Conference was held in London under the presidency of the Post-master-General, the Duke of Norfolk. Chiefly at the instanpe of Canada, the Duke announced that after Christmas an Imperial penny postage would be established with such of the British colonies as were prepared to l reciprocate. The new rates were adopted then or shortly afterwards by tho countries within the Empire with the exception of the Cape, Australia., and New Zealand. The Capo came afterwards into the scheme, and New Zealand joined "when tho bells rang in tho New Year of 1901." The truth therefore is that New Zealand was shy to join an Imperial penny postage system, instead of giving tho lead, as many New ZealSnders suppose to havo been the case. It is true that with tho zeal of a convert, Sir Joseph "Ward as l'ostinasterGeneral at the time when the stamp under discussion was issued, did offer penhy postago to all countries who would reciprocate. So far as the British Empire,' with the exception of Australia, was concerned, this otter was not required, and as concerns the Continent of Europo it was a mere piece of meaningless brag. Before Germany, for instance, couldenjoy tho pleasure of sending a few bags of letter? to New, Zealand for a penny each instead of twopence half-penny, as at present, it would bo necessary to upset the postal arrangements of tho whole Continent of Europe, for obviously it would bo absurd i to bo able to send a letter to New Zealand at a less cost than it does to send a letter across the border to France or Austria. Tho real hero of universal penny postago was of course Mr. Henniker-Heaton, an Englishman, whoso claim Sir Joseph .Ward has attempted to jump. Now Zealand has no moro right to boast of having taken the lead in the matter of penny postage than in presenting a warship to the British Navy, Tho first oolony to do so was' the Cape of Good Hope a good many years ago. It is often said or implied that New Zealand postal arrangements are superior to those elsewhere. My own experience has been to tho contrary. I 6tay not far from the Wellington Club, an easy five minutes' walk from tho General Post Office. The first delivery of letters reaches me. about 10.30, and much later when an English mail is sent out. When I lived 'on the outskirts of a large town in the Old Country, about half-an-hour's w;alk from,the post office, ray letters were always on the breakfast-table by eight o'clock. I have occasion to write frequently to a town in the Old Country, which has a double in New Zealand. On two occasions I have failed to add "Great Britain," and the letter naturally went to the town of the same name in New Zealand. ' But though both letters were otherwise fully addressed with the name of a street, etc., in both cases five weeks passed before these letters found their way back to me, via the Dead Letter Office. Such a thing ought to be impossible in any well-managed post offioe. It has always seemed to me that the excellence of the New Zealand Post Office is confined to \small matters which are of no real importance—but that in things that really count it is deficient. By small matters I mean such tilings as an unnecessarily large number of receiving boxes, and the provision of neat mechanical devices for attaching tho pencil in the telegraph office.—l am, etc., . ANTI-BRAG.