IMPOLICY OF A NEWSPAPER POSTAGE IN A YOUNG COUNTRY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VI, Issue 432, 24 December 1856, Page 6

IMPOLICY OF A NEWSPAPER POSTAGE IN A YOUNG COUNTRY.

(From the Sydney Morning Herald.) We are glad the- proposal to charge for the postage of Newspapers, whoever originated if was not seriously adopted. Wo do not, how' evor. question the rightof the Legislature to impose it. It ciumot bo called a tax—any moiv [ than can a similar charge on conveyance'by il u . I railway. Our country" issue by the Liverpool lino, cost last month .£l4 12s. Od. This is for merely dropping the parcels, at the stations leaving the expense of actual delivery still to h paid. As the lime extends, tho same course will be adopted wherever the population is suiliciently numerous to make the actual cost of circulating the newspaper less than its price to the subscriber. To enlarge the circulation as au advertising medium is "the chief motive iW seeking its diffusion in the country districts The cost of a sheet of the ' .Herald' 'size, before it is delivered at the warehouse, averages a penny ; it is delivered to our subscribers,^^ all tho information we can collect, at <i«mt threepence. This extra twopence is all thai is charged towards the enormous expenses of tho reporting and other literary departments, the composing, printing, and folding of the papers. It must be clear to any person that the country circulation is not a source of great profit, and that if a journal depended upon it, its downfall would be sure.

The effect of a postage would be to limit, perhaps to destroy, the country circulation of daily newspapers. Would the colony be the gainer? A weekly edition could, indeed, be issued at a charge but little more, than a daily postage of one penny : but then the reports of the Courts of law, the legislative debate, the various transactions of diurnal life, must be condensed at the discretion of a journalist. The result would be to give to a great extent a partial view of colonial affairs.

It may be said that at present the population of Sydney and on the line of the railroad pay for I the conveyance of newspapers to the other parts j of the colony. It must however be remembered that the mercantile advertisements and public notices are often intended for the country, and that vast transactions, of which Sydney is tho head quarters, depend for their success on the rapid circulation of information in the interior, i We question if any intelligent citizen would be found who, considering merely its commercial aspect, would favour the proposal of postage. When, however, we turn to higher eonsideraI tions, they appear to point to the impolicy of this impost. The* airily paper is a medium through which valuable discussions are transmitted to the country. The discourse of His Excellency on irrigation, a topic of the highest importance, has comparatively little interest to the people of towns. The country peoplo will read it over half-a-dozen times—it will form a j theme of conversation in a limited, but impor- | tant, section of the colony. !No weekly publication can find room for such a paper. OVe j have constantly opportunities to present our 1 country readers, with the lectures of the most <4! talented men in the colony ; and this because | the dimensions of our journal enable fus to give at once and completely whatever may be useful to any considerable | interest or denomination. The old antipathy jf to newspapers which once existed among Tories Sj and straight-laced religious parties, lingers only || among a few antique specimens. Our journals JJ may challenge comparison for intelligence and M self-control with our Assemblies*, courts of hw, |p and religious gatherings. They have probal'K/ ,^ now taken their stand "in this great country.' v# JimpircK may rise and fall, and there may he n0 jM Jfcrahl to announce ths catastrophe. The Ad- s & vacate of ilia people may be silent; the Journal |« of Freemen may be no longer free; ami fafi in St/dnnj/ may be reduced to the stillness oi « | desert, where no church-going bell ever Houmk | All this may be possible, however improbable | but in one ibrtn or other, under some name or I other, the diurnal press will be tho _ KrWll- ji medium of colonial thought, the link of com- I nierce, the amusement of men of leisure, ana f tho execration and the scourge of fools. J 8 a question worth putting, whether such a mighty ,| instrument of good may not deserve arf i»«c»'i encouragement as any of those agencies winch Jj under the heads of education, «ligion. m"*l] mental culture, cost the colony about J2IOO,UUi> j | a-year. * I

These arc our objections to tho imposition of a postngc charge; and they scorn to counterbalance the expected advantage to tho revenue. We, however, see no reason for representing postage as a wrong and an injury; it is certainly not a tax. It would be fair if it were politic; good, if men were not bound by law to know facts which they can only learn from newspapers; fair, if the advantages derived by country and town fronvjthe general circulation, of tho'information, were not nearly on a par. The practice of England and Victoria are certainly in favour of the impost, but England is now covered with a net-work of railroads, and thus the mode of circulation is vastly altered. Victoria when the postage was imposed on newspapers, could scarcely convey them. That colony had to contend with the worst roads in the world—and a cost of carriage which a retreating army would deem extravagant.