NEWSPAPER POSTAGE.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 18, Issue 1083, 1 August 1871, Page 2

NEWSPAPER POSTAGE.

[EVENING POST.J One of the questions which we trust to see taken up by the Assembly during the the coiling session, is the abolition of the postage on newspapers. This was imposed some years ago by Mr Weld's Government, mainly on account of the additional expense entailed upon the Post Office Department by the conveyance of large numbers of papers free of charge. The saving thus effected has not been either very large or important, while the number of papers forwarded through the Post Office has materially decreased. This latter result is much to be regretted, because to a very large number of the community, who have received little more iu the shape of education than being taught to read and write, newspapers are the only source from which they draw their general information, or become acquainted with the ideas, topics, and events current in the world. As Mr Mill ably argues on this subject:—" An interest is more easily excited in newspapers than in books or other more recondite sources of instruction. Newspapers exercise an important office in disseminating useful ideas. They correct many prejudices and superstitions, and keep up a habit of discussion and interest in public concerns the absence of which is a great cause of the stagnation of mind usually found in the lower and middle, if not in all, ranks of those countries where newspapers of an important or interesting character do not exist. There ought to be no taxes which render this great diffuser of information, of mental excitement, and mental exercise, less accessible to that portion of the public which most needs to be carried into a region of ideas beyond its own limited horigoji." This postage charge on newspapers, though not strictly speaking, a " tax," has yet

in practice the effect of one, because it diminishes their circulation, and materially limits the dissemination of the information they contain, amongst the very class who would be most benefited by it. The wealthier classes in the country districts can just as easily afford to pay for newspapers and postage besides, as they can for any other luxury ; but the humbler settler of narrow means often cannot do so, and is thus deprived of the benefits which could be derived from an important source of information and instruction. A .question like this should not be regarded by the Government as being merely one of revenue. If carrying newspapers free entailed a slight increase of outlay to the Post Office Department, surely that would be more than counterbalanced by materially raising the standard of the intelligence, information, and intellectual culture of the people a 3 a whole. It is the duty of the State to supply elementary education to the rising generation ; and surely it may be urged, on broad grounds, that the duty is equally imperative of affording the fullest facilities for the diffusion of general knowledge amongst those who most need it. Views such as those we now express have been fully recognised in some other places outside of New Zealand. In Victoria, the rate of postage on newspapers has been reduced from one penny to a halfpenny ; while in some of the other Australian Colonies it has been abolished altogether. That the New Zealand Government, with such examples before it, should still impose the full penny rate of postage, betokens a narrowness of view and an incapacity to regard this question in its broad and general bearings, on the part of our public men, which reflects little credit upon the Colony. There are some features of special hardship to New Zealand in this postage on newspapers. In this Province, for example, at the time the annual amount of subscription to the papers was fixed, they went free by post. When the penny rate was imposed, seven-tenths of the country subscribers to Wellington journals declined to pay the postage in addition, and thus newspaper proprietors were compelled to find some other means than the Post Office, by which to forward their journals to the country districts. In England, with its network of railways and forwarding agencies, this could have been easily and cheaply done, but not so here. Country subscribers in this Pro vince are scattered over a large area, and this necessitates making up numerous small parcels and establishing numerous agencies, besides paying the cost of carriage by Cobb's coaches. The system is enormously troublesome and costly to the newspaper proprietor. He pays cost of transit, wrappers, addressing, making up bags, and annual fees to some fifteen agents besides, in the Hutt, Wairarapa, and West Coast districts; while he ob tains not a penny more for his journal from his country subscribers than the usual town subscription, although the additional disadvantage has to be borne, that newspaper country accounts are very costly to collect. Were the newspapers allowed to go free by post, all these drawbacks would be removed without costing the Post Office more than a very small amount of extra trouble or expense. This is obvious, because that department already possesses all the machinery of a receiving, forwarding, and distributing agency for the ordinary mails. These are carried throughout every part of the Province by Cobb's coaches and other conveyances, and delivered at the local Post Offices in every centre of population. The sole additional expenditure, therefore, that would be necessary to throw the Post Office open for the free transmission of newspapers would be the very trifling extra charge made by the mail contractors for carrying an increased weight in the bags. This alone can scarcely be urged by the Government as a sufficient reason for continuing to impose a postage rate, which presses heavily upon newspaper proprietors, and checks the diffusion of useful information amongst the great mass of the people. We have ever held the opinion that the establishment of a first-class Colonial newspaper, published at Wellington as the seat of Government, and circulating throughout the whole Culony, would materially raise the status of the Press, and confer vast advantages upon the settlers in Zealand, but so long as this postage rate is imposed, such an undertaking would have no chance of success, A journal of the

kind could not compete with those published in the several Provinces, simply because the postage would enormously enhance its price, An insuperable barrier would thus be raised to its general circulation, and without that such a journal, got up at a large outlay, would prove unremunerative. It is a great misfortune that New Zealand does not possess a journal of this stamp, and it is a circumstance to be deplored, that the niggardly, cheeseparing action of the Legislature in maintaining this postage rate should, be the chief reason why such is the case.