§ MR. GREENEasked the Postmaster General, If the Post Office authorities have decided that in future not less than a dozen postal cards can be bought at any Post Office, an extra halfpenny being charged for the same; and, if so, whether he has considered the effect on the poorer classes of a decision which obliged them to purchase twelve cards when only requiring one?
§ MR. BAXTER, in the absence of the Postmaster-General, said: It has been decided that in future not less than a dozen post-cards can be bought at any post-office, and that an extra halfpenny shall be charged for the same. Experience has shown that the poorer classes hardly ever use post-cards, and it rarely happens that a single card is sold to any one. It is calculated that the change will increase the revenue by £13,000 per annum. I may add that paper-makers and stationers of the United Kingdom have from the first strongly complained that the interests of their trade were being seriously affected by the sale of the post-cards for a halfpenny each, without any charge being made for the cards themselves. But this is not the only change proposed. The stationers have also remonstrated against the exclusion of all private cards from a participation in the privileges accorded to the post-cards issued by the Government; and, as the departmental reasons which seemed at the first to render such exclusion necessary no longer exist, it is intended to allow private cards having written communications upon them to pass through the post under certain restrictions, for a postage of a halfpenny. This will give opportunity to the stationers to devise a variety of cards, differing both in quality and design, for general use; and all classes will participate, more or less, in the accommodation.