THE POSTAGE STAMP.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 292, 22 August 1888, Page 7

THE POSTAGE STAMP.

The story of its origin.— A. brief sketch of its inventor. Mn, afterwards Sir, Rowland Hill, the great post-office reformer and inventor of the postage stamp, was born a I Kidderminster, England, on December 3, 1795. After bis education was completed he assumed the position of teacher in a school conducted by his father, near Birmingham, until 1888, when he joined a company interested in forming a colony in South Australia, and was appointed Secretary of the Royal Commissioners who managed the affairs of the colony. He was also a member of the %; Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge " | The rates of postage at that time were very high. Postage beyond the limits of London district post-office varied from 4d to 1? 8d for a single letter, meaning a single piece of paper of less than one ounce weight. This exhorbitant rate of postage was beyond the means of the mass of people, consequently correspondence was evaded, and this proved very injurious to com- j merce and the industry of the .country. The high rate of postage attracted Hill's attention ; he argued that if the price of postage was lowered, so many more letters would pass through the mails that the financial condition would not be impaired, while society would derive much additional benefit. He became so much interested in the matter that in 1639 he prepared a pamphlet recom- , mending a low and uniform rate of ! postage, which he succeeded in bringing before the British Government ; his plans j ■were much favoured, and a committee was appointed to investigate its merits and present a new code of postal laws, i -which were adopted, making the London direct postage one penny, and a general inland rate of four pence. January 10th, i 18-10, the uniform penny post came into use, which may be considered the birthday of the postage stamp, although thoy ■were not actually introduced until the 6th of May following. The expeiiment I was successful beyond his own expectation ; during the next ten years it made so great a difference that in 1850 there were sent through the mails 7,239,90*2 letters, against 1^500,000 in 1840. Hill then accepted a place in the Treasury, but a change of Government dismissed him. He was generally regarded as a public benefactor, and a subscription was £ot up for his benefit in London, which amounted to £15,000. This goes to show the approbation with which he was regarded by a grateful nation. In 1546 he was appointed Secretary to the Postmaster-General. In 1860 hf was made K.C.B. in recognition of his public services. We print the following curious and interesting story, though we do not know its origin. There is a slight prol»a''ilitv that it may have been what set Mr Hill thinking ; j it is as follows :—: — *' One di v .y a, girl came out of an inn located in the north of England ami received from a postman a letter, which she turned over in her hand as she inquired the price of the postage. The man asked a shilling, a sum too large for one so poor as herself to pay, and so she returned the letter to the postman with sadness, although she knew her brother had sent it. But a sympathetic traveller, named Rowland Hill, stood by, and at this moment interposed, and insisted on paying the shilling himself, although the girl seemed strongly adverse to his doing so. When the postman had departed the kind hearted Mr Hill was surprised that there was no need for his pity, for the envelope contained no written communication, but on its outsiile were certain marks agreed upon by herself and brother, horn wVich, as she held the letter in lipi- h:>nds, she gathered all the information she de-shed. 'We are so poor,' she continued, ' that we inventor! this mode of correspondence without paying for hitters.' ''* — Philadelphia Press.