SURCHARGING NEW ZEALAND LETTERS. The Dog in the Manger.

Free Lance, Volume I, Issue 33, 16 February 1901, Page 8

SURCHARGING NEW ZEALAND LETTERS. The Dog in the Manger.

IT is difficult to account for the attitude of the New South Wales postal authorities towards the New Zealand penny post. At the outset they refused the Post-master-General's proposals to admit our letters bearing the new penny stamp. Why they should do so is the puzzle. It surely is no concern of theirs whether our Government charges one penny or twopence on letters addressed to New South Wales. The sister colony benefits not even to the extent of a brass fai thing upon stamps purchased in this colony, no matter how high their denomination may be. It is for us purely a domestic matter what the letter postage fee shall be. * # • However, the Sydney postal authorities refuse to recognise our penny post. Not only that, but, when people here, in ignorance of this refusal, send letters to New South Wales bearing only the penny stamp, the authorities there charge the recipients an extra fee, which includes a fine. In other words, they punish their own people for innocently receiving letters that friends m New Zealand post in good faith with only a penny stamp. The whole thing looks mean and spiteful, and forcibly recalls to one's mind the familiar fable of the dog m the manger. * • • At any rate, the Federal Premier has just announced that penny postage will be established throughout the Commonwealth at the earliest possible date. Should it be delayed, Mr. Ward can easily checkmate the rather churlish action of the New South Wales postal authorities m surcharging New Zealand letters bearing only a penny stamp. Mr Seddon has suggested a plan which is simplicity itself. The authorities here have only to sec that all letters are fully stamped before they leave. So far as the public are concerned, the penny post would then apply even to Australia, and the extra stamps affixed here would cost the Government next to nothing— only the ink, the paper, and the printing, in fact.