A RED-LETTER DAY.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 22, 19 March 1915, Page 4 (Supplement)

A RED-LETTER DAY.

By us, for whom frequency of posis and cheapness of postage make letters often an embarrassment, it is difficult to realise the time when they were luxuries. But for the great majority they were rare, and not always welcome, visitors in days when recipients had to pay the charge, and writers, hi order to reduce expense by economising paper, crossed and recrossed the lines in a manner most trying for the eyes. Pranks by M.P.'s, who enjoyed the privilege of sending letters free, were then eagerly sought after, while those who could not command them resorted to divers artifices to trick the Revenue.

One of these came under the notice of Mr. (late Sir) Rowland Hill, when, in the kindness of his heart, lie paid the charge on a litter for a poor woman, who displayed obvious unwillingness to receive the favour. The reluctance was explained after the postman bad gone, for the letter, which was from her son, was nothing but a blank sheet of paper, folded and addressed. It turned out that, by arrangement, the son sent be:' one such at intervals. The handwriting of the address sufficed to show her that he was alive, and mi she saved tie.' postage by declining the letter. The incident caused Hill to reflect, and the outcome of hi.-, reflection was the system of penny postage, which came into force January 10, M:>. and proved, as we all know, an unqualified success, being not only beneficial to the whole community, but also, by the great increase of letter-writing caused 'hereby, a source of much profit, instead of, as its opponents had prophesied, a cause of serious loss. Its subsequent great development is matter of common knowledge; but it is interesting in remember that Imperial Penny Postnge had to contend against the same apprehensions, and has refuted the.n in the same way.