COLONIAL AND FOREIGN POSTAGE. [From the Athenæum.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 800, 2 April 1853, Page 4

COLONIAL AND FOREIGN POSTAGE. [From the Athenæum.]

We have beeu favoured with some interesting rommonications relative to the bearing of the postage question on the acquisition and exchange of old, scarce, and valuable books, and on the book trade in general. Penny postage, post-office orders, and the reductions which have been made in the postal charges on pamphlets and on other printed matter have been of immense benefit to the book trade ; —and, in some cases, have enabled new undertakings to be successfully carried out which could not have been established before the facilities to which we have alluded were in existence. We are told that one bookseller, having a large business in philological, historical, antiquarian, artistic, and other valuable and learned works, and who has wisely availed himself of all the assistance which the Post Office now affords, has, within five years, printed more than fifty catalogues of old books on sale, —averaging generally about 2,000 copies of each, or 100,000 in the whole. Nearly all these catalogues have been sent out by post: —from which a sum not far short of £500 has accrued to the revenue of the Post Office. The majority of these catalogues were circulated within the United Kingdom ; but a portion of them were sebt to the United States of America, and a few to France. It is the business of this gentleman to collect such works as are in demand by the learned world ; and it is obvious that the circulation of catalogues containing the titles and prices of such books —collected, as they most necessarily be, with much care and discretion —is highly advantageous to the Professors of universities and colleges, to the managers of public libraries, to statesmen t clergymen —in short, to men of literary pursuits and attainments generally: — more especially to those who live out of the din of the busy world, and pursue a quiet, intellectual career for the benefit of the public or for their own improvement. To such men the penny postage has been an inestimable boon. We are told that these trade catalogues often barely remunerate the bookseller for the cost of printing and postage; and that were it not for the sale of books to those countries to which such lists may be sent for a trifling charge, there j would be a loss on the transaction, and conse- ' quently the practice of printing such catalogues would be abandoned. By this result the literary world would lose one of its most useful and attractive periodicals. When we look at the subject of pamphlet postage with regard to our own colonies, we find one of those vexatious anomalies which meet us at every turn in our present postal arrangements. A London bookseller may sent a pamphlet weighing le?s than two ounces to the University of Cambridge in the Uuited States of America for one penny ; —but if he wishes to send it to one of the learned Doctors in our own University of Cambridge be must pay sixpence for it if be sends it as a pamphlet. He may send it, however, in a letter for fourpence. A pamphlet weighing less than half an ounce would go, as a letter in a closed envelope, for a penny ; but if left open at the ends and paid as a " pamphlet," the postage, as before stated, would be sixpence. Again, —as we have said, a pamphlet nnder two ounces weight may be scut to the United States for a penny ; —but if a bookseller wishes to extend bis trade with our own possessions abroad, —if he posts his catalogue to Canada, to the Cape, or even to Malta, —the same pott-office which takes it to New York or New Orleans for a penny will demand sixpence for carrying it to either of the other places named. Should he wish to send it to Bombay, Madras, or Calcutta, he must pay " letter postage," —which, by way of Southampton, would be four shillings under two ounces : —while the very same packet will drop a similar pamphlet at Ceylon for sixpence. Singapore is in the same predicament as Bombay. The "Peninuaular and Oriental" Company's mail steamer will carry a bulky packet of pamphlets to Singapore for five shillings ; —but a single one weighing less than two ounces, carried by the same steamer, would be charged four shillings postage. If as in the case of Ceylon already cited, the single packet were to be carried a thousand miles or so lurther —namely, to Hong Kong—it will cost only sixpence. —For these latter eccentricities, we are indebted to some mysterious arrangements and principles emanating from the Society of Merchant Princes whose throne is in Leaden-hall-street. It will surprise no one that, with such a tariff as the above in operation, a bookseller should say —« At this rate I cannot send out catalogues on speculation. The postage would ruin me." — The same writer adds —" At the Cape, India, &c, I have customers; but not being able to send my catalogues at a low rate, I gradually lose them." The serious impediments which these contradictory and expensive regulations must place in the way of trade and of literature, science, art and education may be easily conceived, but cannot be fully stated within any moderate limits: —and surely it is the policy of Government to place its colonial subjects on as good a footing as is pottible in such matters. The monotony so much complained of in colonial life might be thus materially relieved, and the ideas of the colonists thereby raised and expanded : —while the feeling that they are far worse off {than foreign nations with respect to their mother-country in such matters, cannot certainly assist in impressing their minds with tbe immense benefits of their connexion with the land of their fathers. The extension of the trade in books between this and foreign countries, —even those which, like the United States, rejoice in a low pamphlet postage, —is exceedingly restricted by the coit of letters passing between those countries.. At the present time nearly all the orders received from abroad come through the hands of agents; but, if the postage were reduced to a penny or twopence, such orders would be sent direct to the bookseller here. Tbe effect on the trade would be as striking and important as that of the removal of toituous windings and obstructions

from the banks and bed of » river. As in the preceding case, these remarks apply with tenfold force to onr Colonies. The whole question of postage between this conntry and its numerous dependencies is in our own hands. No other nation can bare a voice in the matter ; and there are no difficulties in t^e way of an immediate and complete reform, that can by any peculiarity of vision, or by any mode of argument whatever, be exaggerated into impediments. The International Postage Association continues to proceed with vigour in its work, — and the general response exhibits the public estimate of its importance. We have just received a printed paper containing the names of about sixty gentlemen in all paits of the three kingdoms, who have been elected Honorary Corresponding Members of the Association, and who will no doubt be very effective in making known the objects of t'ae Association throughout the country. The majority of these gentlemen acted as Secretaries to the Local Committees for the Great Exhibition. We have been informed that measures are taking to establish similar Associations in all the great sea-ports, and in many important manufacturing districts. The Council of the Association is in communication with the Chambers of Commerce and other commercial Associations which exist throughout the kingdom : and it is probable that the meeting of delegates which is to take place in London about the middle of next ■ month, on the very important subject of the re- | form of our commercial law, will be taken advantage of by the Postage Association for a conference on the latter subject. Some time since, as our readers already know, the Association addressed a letter to the ambassadors and other representatives of foreign countries :— and from nearly all of them answers have now been received expressive of the deepest interest in the movement. A large number of foreigners known for their intelligence in such matters have been invited to become the agents of the Association in the various places wherein they reside ; — and their notices of acceptances of the appointment begin to be received. M. Legentil, the President of the Chamber of Commerce in Paris, thus writes : — I have communicated to the Chamber of Commerce the letter which you were good enough to write to roe. I am enabled to inform you, that it takes the most lively interest in the success of yonr enterprise, —and I am assured of its assistance whenever it may be called upon.—-M. Horace Say, son of onr celebrated economist, T. B. Say, himself the author of several works on Political Economy, and Secretary of our Chamber of Commerce, has expressed a desire to become a member of your honourable Association. In making this ! announcement, I believe I enter into the views < of your Society, and I do not think it could make 1 a better acquisition."