UNDER-STAMPED LETTERS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 May 1939, Page 11

UNDER-STAMPED LETTERS

SURCHARGES TOTAL £7,000. “THE WRONG PEOPLE PAY.” One form of, revenue which the Post Office is very averse to collecting is the deficiency penalty on correspondence. It much prefers to see postal matter correctly prepaid because international postal procedure requires collection of double any deficiency not from the offender but from the addressee. Under-paid correspondence reached a high point following the changes in overseas letter rates last year owing to the inauguration of the Empire air service,, and it . is officially announced ..by the Post Office that surcharged letters are being sent from New Zealand to the United States alone at the rate of 150.000 every year. Usually these letters bear either Id or lid instead of the minimum of 21d. thus involving deficiency surcharges of either 3d or 2d. New Zealanders, therefore, are taxing their correspondents in the United States of America to the extent of over £1,500 per annum. The deficiencies in postage on correspondence arriving from overseas are collected in New Zealand, and there is also a certain proportion of under-paid postal matter sent through the inland mails. It is estimated that the aggregate amount of surcharges collected annually by the New Zealand Post Office is about £7,000. The Australian Commonwealth Post Office assesses its average deficiency collections at £23,000 per annum, and has recently pointed out in one of its official announcements that “the wrong people pay.”