CORRESPONDENCE. POSTAL NOTES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10132, 10 January 1911, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

POSTAL NOTES.

(To the Editor.) Sir, — Having frequent occasion to send small sums of money to outlying .centres, I make use somewhat freely of the postal notes issued at the Post Office. I find the service a great convenience, but never could understand the principle upon which the fees are charged. I pay ray money over the counter, and am given a slip of paper of the same face value. For sums up to £1 I pay from one halfpenny to sixpence, according to the amount. I oft-times hold the postal notes for a few days, and probably the parties I send them to do the same. That gives the Government the use of my money for a period, the interest on which would equal the fees paid for the notes. Multiply my case by hundreds of others, and the Government will be found to have several hundreds of pounds of money for which they pay no interest, but, on the contrary, the depositors have to pay,for giv-r ing the Government the use' of the money—and, curiously enough, the more they deposit the higher the charge. Would it not pay the Government well if they made/no charge at all, or an equal charge of say one halfpenny on each note issued, no matter what its value? I was. pleased to see this morning's Age had taken up ■this question. There is one other point, and perhaps tho strongest argument in favour of abolishing the tax on postal notes, and that is this: These notes are only required ,for transmission to outside towns, and a tax on.each, of one penny for postage, and a further tax of one penny for acknowledgement, has to be paid to the Government. Thus you will see that the Postal Department is making a fat revenue out of the people who are not well, enough off to keep a bank-, ing account. —I am, etc., OVER-TAXED. .