LOWER POSTAGE RATES TO THE COLONIES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8448, 24 May 1907, Page 3

LOWER POSTAGE RATES TO THE COLONIES.

(Prom Our London Correspondent,

LONDON, April 10, 1907,

A private meeting has just been held by leading men of ,this city to consider the question of lower postage rates to the colonies.

The chair was taken by Sir H. Gilzean-Reid, who said that,the time wasiipefor reviewing the struggle for reasonable rates which had been carried on for the past ten or fifteen years without result. The Postmas-ter-General of Canada had taken up the question, and was shortly to submit a scheme to the Home authorities, in view of the fact that Canada was being flooded with cheap, vulgar, and antwßritish literature from the United States. It was to be hoped that something might be done from this side to pave the way for the representations from Canada.

Mr C. Arthur Pearson proposed' "That it is desirable to bring to the notice of the Post-master-General and the Government the urgent and general call for a reduction in the rate of postage of British periodicals to the colonies." It would be, he said, of inestimable advantage to the trade of the countries concerned by virtue of the advertisements which are contained in the magazines and newspapers. He also emphasized the importance of keeping the colonies abreast of the train of thought «in the Mother Country. Mr L. Upcott Gill, who seconded, the motisn, compared magazine advertisements to travellers who found their way to remote corners, where it would never pay human travellers to go. He maintained that the benefit accruing to the magazines and newspapers was of secondary importance, and of no account beside the national and Imperial advantage. Ultimately a sub-committee was formed to consider the best course to be adopted to give practical effect to the resolution. It was decided to send a deputation to wait' upon the Right Hon. Mr Sidney Buxton iq, order to lay before him the views qf the Colonial Postage Reform ComJ mittee.