Page:The Post Office of Fifty Years Ago.djvu/80

12 Consequently, the average cost of conveying a letter or newspaper, including the cost of collecting the tax, is, under the present arrangements, about 1⅓d.

In the total of expenses here given some are however included which ought not to enter into the calculation;—certain expenses, as the cost of the packet service, for instance, are undoubtedly capable of great reduction: others, as the cost of expresses, and of many by-posts, are met by special charges.

For the sake of simplicity, it will be well to confine the attention to the apparent cost under the existing arrangements of what may be called the Primary distribution of letters, &c., (meaning by that term, the transmission of letters, &c., from post-town to post-town throughout the United Kingdom, and the delivery within the post-towns,) and to leave out of consideration, for the present, the cost of Secondary distribution, or that distribution which proceeds from each post-town, as a centre, to places of inferior importance. At the same time, in estimating the cost of primary distribution, it will be convenient to make any reductions which are obviously practicable, and which do not require a deviation in principle from the existing arrangements.

The following table exhibits the apparent cost of primary distribution, cleared of certain extraneous charges, and divided under two heads; the first showing the expenses of transit, or those which are dependent on the distance over which the letters have to be conveyed; the second showing the expenses of