PENNY POSTAGE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 547, 2 June 1933, Page 3

PENNY POSTAGE

AN ANNIYERSARY WHICH WILL BE GENERALLY FORGOTTEN. - FLUCTUATIONS IN RATES. Thursday, June 1, is an anniversarj which will receive no recognition witl flag-waigging or speech-making, bui 1 nevertheless it is the anniversary oi I an event of importance to th'e community in New 2'ealand. It was or June 1 last year that penny postage was r.eintroduced after having been ir abeyance since March of the previous year. Postaige rates in New Zealand during the last eighteen years have fluc. tuated considerably. Penny postage was long the aceepted order, and the old and at one time familiar caimine penny stamp, first issued-in 1901 anc on duty for some twenty years, was supposed to herald universal pennj postage. That dream, however, was never quite fulfilled, penny postage being aceepted in the British Empire but no,t universally outside it. Penny postage in New Zealand .and betweer parts of the Empire seemed to be ari institution almost beyond the realir of challenge, until the Gxeat Wai caane along and upset it as well as many another cherished institution, In September, 1915, there began a series of chianges in postal rates, and :ever since then postal rates have been more or less in a state of fluctuation. On September 23, 1915, penny postage was abolished, and lid became •the r.ate for the first four ounces. After the war, the Post and Telegraph Department apparently thought that l ia.dditional revenue ■ was needed, and could be acquired by bumping up the rate to twopence"* for the first two ounces. This rate was instituted on August 1, 1920, and remained in force until February 1, 1923, when there was a reversion to lld for two ounces, not for four as previously. Then in October of the same year, with a figurative flourish' of trumpets and the issue of a special penny stamp (the "map1" stamp), penny postage was once again introduced, but it was not the generous penny postage of former years, for only one onnce could be sent for a penny. From October 1, 1923, to March 1, 1931, penny postage remained in force, but in the meantime the depression had a demoralising eifect, and on the latter date the rates were doubled. This rate, twopence for the first two ounces, and one penny for each additional ounce, remained in force until June 1 last year, when the rate was reduced to one penny again for the first ounce, with an extra half -penny for each additional ounce. This is the rate now in force within New Zealand, and the same rate applies to the United Kingdom, British possessions, and the United States, except that every ounce after the first costs one penny instead of a halfpenny. The rates for postcards, newspapers andj inland packets, and the late fee and registered fees have shown similar fluctuations. It is generally agreed that from a psych'ologieal point of v-iew and from the business aspect penny postage is a good thing to retain whenever possible. Financial considerations, however, must be taken into account. What the future holds in store as regards New Zealand postal rates it is hardly safe to prophesy, but the whole community naturally hopes that this first year of the restoration of penny postage is but the first of many years during which the rate will be maintained. When better times come perhaps we may be allowed to send two, or even four, ounces for a penny.