Page:The life and letters of Sir John Henniker Heaton bt. (IA lifelettersofsi00port).pdf/330

 stamps inside each. The Post Office takes very great care of these letters—more care than if they were registered.

He is not ashamed to cheat the revenue, and does not deserve an answer. Twopence will be the charge while I am in office.

Two traders request that the minimum charge for the sample post should be a halfpenny for two ounces—a change greatly desired by the trading public. These firms say that if allowed to put samples of cloth or linen inside each open envelope they would increase trade enormously. One firm states that they would send a million extra samples through the post every year, and thousands of people would be convenienced. Under present rules only paper can be sent by the halfpenny post.

These millionaire advertising traders can well afford the extra halfpenny. Send a regretful refusal.

A Londoner holds that as the regulations in the "Postal Guide" are drawn up in the interests of the department, and are full of pitfalls, the principles of interpretation being apparently reducible to two—(1) Read the regulations as unfavourably to the public as possible; and (2) never alter a decision once pronounced—the "Postal Guide" should be revised in the interests of the public, and the regulations should be at least grammatical and, if possible, perfectly clear.

Tell him codes are never light reading, and necessitate a staff of official interpreters, but that if he will revise the "Guide" on the lines he indicates and send me the draft I will——

Pigeonhole it! Ho, ho, ho!

Ha, ha, ha!