POST AGE INCREASH

Hokitika Guardian, 18 October 1921, Page 3

POST AGE INCREASH

SALE OF POSTCARDS AFFECTED. LONDON. August 25. Sir Adolph Tuck says that from the very day the postcard postage was raised to lld tho drop in tlid sale of picture postcards began, and it lias fallen to his lot to receive many hundreds of communications from retailers throughout the country, many of them J couched in strong language, giving the actual percentage of the loss oi sales from the day the increase started, the loss averaging nearly •>() per cent. He was speaking at the meeting yesterday of Messrs Raphael Tuck, and Sons, and he said it was obvious that the decrease in the posting of picture postcards by the public must be in lunch the same proportion as the drop in the sales. Therefore, everybody interested the trade, tile public. and the Post Office itself were undoubted losers by the ill-advised increase. All that tliev were asking was that picture potennis might, he treated in the same way as in Frame and other countries--separate from the ordinary correspondence postcards—and tfmt 12 words of any general character should lie allowed <ni the address side only at Id post. 1 ago rate. Surely that was a modest enough request. It- could not com- 1 pete with the 2d letter post. As chairman of a representative committee formed by the picture postcard industry to combat that increase, lie had introduced an important -leputn- j tion to the late Postmaster-General, and subsequently he had led a second deputation this year to the present j Postmaster-General. Ihe practical ar- 1 g„incuts brought forward by the do-j putation against the . proposed increase! appeared unanswerable. Mr Kellaway j made not the slightest attempt to dis- j cuss anv of the arguments, hut jnlor 11- | ed the deputation tlia the was hound to make up the deficit of three and a half millions, admittedly on the telephones branch of the Post Office- Service, and said that, so far, 110 practical suggestions had hen put fomaid . as to the amount was to he found, j By implication, the Postmaster-General j threw the onus of advice upon the pic- j turo postcard deputation, which oc I tainlv did not oome within its Line- , tions.

Though the company was the la roes! picture postcard producer in the Empire, that department was responsible, after all. for but 10 per cent, of the combined annual turnover. Tins Christmas ami New Year cards, bi-to-day card, and greeting card department continued its great lead; the turn over-was by far the highest on recoil, amounting t*7 no loss than lo per cent, over last year’s attainment. The picture department had shown quite a considerable tuvnover considering the depression in trade, while tin* advertsing department had been one of the bright spots of the year’s trade, for the* increase in the turnover of that promising department over the previous year was no less than -If) per cent. The year’s profits, after providing for had! and doubtful debts, depreciation, in- i conic* tax', and all expense's amount- j ed to £47,3011. There was a balance j available of £20.232. from which the j directors recommended the* payment •*! j a final dividend on the ordinary shares, for the six months to April 30th J 1921, at the rate of 10 per cent, mak- j ing, with the interim dividend, 10 per j cent, for the year. The reserves would | then stand at £BO,OOB. ! ! Sir A. Conan Doyle was welcomed on I his return from Australasia. He thought that, considering the; year byl been a black fieriod tor English trade, ami that it was impossible to pick up a financial paper without finding companies declaring losses of anything between £10,01)0 and a million sterling on the year’s trading, they tin msclve-, witn 10 per cent. - ■ distribute, were rather in a position to hand bouquets round to each other instead of assuming anything in the nature of an apologetic* tone. \) Hilo the country bad gone through a bad time, be thought it bail passed through the. trough of the wave and was now on the rise, lie* hoped that the Postmaster-Genera! would show the last sign ol a si rung man by admitting that lie was wrong, j From hi*) experience in the Antipode.) ’ he could confirm all that the chairman i had said as to the esteem in which their publications were held the woild over. Before the war the postage rare on i postcards was id, for the last three vctus It Ims been Id and now>t isl^d-