Page:The Post Office of Fifty Years Ago.djvu/104

36 franks and newspapers, produce a net revenue to the Exchequer of about £1,278,000 per annum, or only about £280,000 less than the present amount. This rate of postage, then, appears to conform with all the conditions laid down: I therefore propose,—

That the charge for primary distribution, that is to say, the postage on all letters received in a post-town, and delivered in the same, or any other post-town in the British Isles, shall be at the uniform rate of one penny per half ounce;—all letters and other papers, whether single or multiple, forming one packet, and not weighing more than half an ounce, being charged one penny; and heavier packets, to any convenient limit (say a quarter of a pound), being charged an additional penny for each additional half ounce. The charge for weights exceeding half an ounce should not, perhaps, in strict fairness, increase at so great a rate; but strict fairness may be advantageously sacrificed to simplicity; and it is perhaps not desirable that the Post Office should be encumbered with heavy parcels.

As, however, to adopt this scale for the present twopenny and penny posts would in certain instances considerably advance the postage in these departments, it might be well to allow greater weight here, as, for instance, two ounces for a penny, four for two-pence, &c., and the maximum might be placed as high as a pound. If this difference of weight existed, it would be necessary to keep the local