FENNY POSTAGE.

Hokitika Guardian, 7 March 1924, Page 3

FENNY POSTAGE.

LONDON. Jan. ](i. Lord Illyth makes an eloquent appeal for universal penny postage. “Foremost of ancillaries for the solution of unemployment, tint! an essential factor of success in nil commercial activity,” lie writes in a “Times” letter, “is the impulse of cheap postage. In the opinion of every man. of thought and weight, it is the golden key of our industrial future. 1 venture, therefore, to appeal to the Government, whatever its complexion may be. to put the restoration of our pre-war rates of postage in the forefront of their proposals. Whatever loss there were in revenue (which at most would be temporary) from the establishment of universal penny postage would be mierosoopic as compared with the prodigious gain to the country and the resultant increase, of employment. The difference in cost of sorting, conveying, and delivering it letter ten miles or ten thousand miles away is negligible. Every plan for prompting employment must he enormously enhanced in practical utility if accompanied by cheap postage. Without it every such project will be shorn of at least halt its potential value. It is no figment ol fancy to say that dear postage halves and cheap postage doubles business transactions. The impetus of frequent letters engendered by the nimble jkmiitv moves with ever-increasing momentum the wheels of trade, and industry, so that mercantile and social, family and fri/eudly, correspondence become winged messengers of peace ami active ambassadors of commerce.

“Expenditure on a cheap and efti■ient postal service first and last and ill the time is reproductive expendiure; and the restoration <>f penny cist.age, more especially a buhl policy if a universal penny post, would, to an ilmost unthinkable extent., hasten the tigerl.v awaited arrival of trade and iromote that mutual goodwill which is nore than ever essential for oommerinl interchange and for abiding peace n the world.”