THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, JANUARY 4, 1907. THE WORLD'S POSTAGE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8324, 4 January 1907, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, JANUARY 4, 1907. THE WORLD'S POSTAGE.

When one fixes a stamp to, a letter to a foreign country, how is the sum represented by the stamp distributed among the different countries through which it will travel? For instance, a letter from Japan to Turkey might go by the United States, to England, then through France and Italy to its destination. Countries do not carry each other's mail bags for nothing. Transit charges are paid to all the countries through which a letter passes. The method of payment is very simple. Each country has rates of carriage fixed by the Postal Union. At certain intervals, known as statistical periods, the mails are. weighed at the despatching office and at the office of the country, to which they ' are sent, and the weights form the basis of payment to the intermediate countries until the next period. The different nations work a system of contra accounts, and when the time of settlement arrives the sums of money changing hands are not large. The country receiving a mail makes no charge on the country despatching it for expense of distribution, as it is recognised that a letter delivered will probably lead to a reply, and the different countries simplify matters by acting reciprocally. Those who are occasionally forgetful enough to post a letter without a stamp may be interested hear that the omission results in a loss to the Government of the country from which the letter is sent. If a letter is forwarded from London to Paris without the necessary 2Jd stamp (fancy paying 2Jd for such a short distance!) the French Government collects double postage and retains it, and if an unstamped letter goes the other way, the' English post office gains the same amount. Of course if a man is absent-minded enough to post letters unstamped it is not the least use telling him that he is robbing his coun try. The largest mail in the world is-

that which leaves London on Friday nights for India, China, Japan, Aus" tralia, and New Zealand, via Brindisi. En route this is augmented by mails from Spain and Belgium, and so great is the weight that to pay on the basis of the usual transit rates would mean a very large sum. Therefore the British Government, instead of adopting the usual method in this instance, charter the mail train from Calais to Brindisi, and the other countries that use it pay their proportion of cost according •to the weight of their mails. A strange anomaly in connection with this mail is that the postage on the letters it carries to us on this side of the world is a penny per half-ounce, while letters dropped at Paris bear 2£d stamps. The British Postmaster-General is deeply sympathetic, but declares that he cannot afford to reduce the postage.