THE Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, MONDAY, 30th JANUARY, 1865.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume V, Issue 220, 30 January 1865, Page 2

THE Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, MONDAY, 30th JANUARY, 1865.

His Excellency’s proclamation imposing the tax of one penny on all newspapers forwarded through the post comes into operation on the Ist February, so that this is the last day but one on which newspapers can be posted free of a stamp. We observe that several of our contemporaries have taken the subject in hand, and as we anticipated, severely condemned the obnoxious impost showing, as we have already shown, that while it will not be so productive a source of revenue as has been anticipated, it will act in materially checking the progress of the colony, in depriving a very large class of outlying settlers of their almost only connection with society, and the means of keep-

ing pace with its progress. In particular, some of our contemporaries have pointed out that the tax will fall ultimately and heavily on the journeyman printers, a class of men of a high standard of intellect and character, hut even now receiving a lower scale of remuneration than the operatives of almost any other branch of industry. One of our Auckland contemporaries has forcibly pointed out the fact, that in a recently tried experiment of the same class in New South Wales, the productiveness of a newspaper postage tax was less than almost any other that could be imposed, while on the question of its counterbalancing disadvantages to the public, it must le universally condemned. It is beside all this most unfair and unequal in its operation on the newspaper press. As an instance we will mention a large class, of which our own sheet is an example in point. These, consisting of a single sheet demy size, and weighing about |oz., are charged the same for postage as the large heavy papers some eight to twelve times their size and weight. Again some of the single sheets are charged but Id. per copy to subscribers. On these the postage tax will be cent, per cent, on their price; on our publication the cost would he 50 per cent, if posted, a proportion out of all comparison with that borne by the larger and successful journals of the provincial and metropolitan cities. We have before expressed our opinion that the tax would be so unpopular that it would have but au ephemeral existence, and this is still our opinion. But for this consummation, it will be necessary for the public to raise their voices somewhat higher on the question than they have as yet done. In our own case, our subscribers will not feel the tax so heavily as in some others. Our arrangements for publishing a weekly edition for posting has already been made known. Yet as it involves a necessary addition of Is. per quarter to the amount paid by our country subscribers, it must to some extent be expected to check our circulation, although we believe not sufficient to inflict on us a material injury. We fear, however, that it will probably end in the ruin of several of our struggling contemporaries in the present depressed state of trade and commerce in the south of the colony.