§ COLONEL HILL (Bristol, S.)I beg to ask the Postmaster General what will be the effect upon the Imperial Revenue if, consequent upon the reduction of the colonial postage to 2½d. (estimated by him to involve a loss of £88,400), the number of letters to India and Australia be doubled; and what will be the financial effect of the same increase of correspondence if the postage on letters to India and Australia be reduced to one penny?
§ MR. RAIKESAs every letter for India or Australia carried for a postage of 2½d. would involve a loss, to double the amount of correspondence sent would but be to increase the loss; and, if the same increase took place in conjunction with a 1d. postage, the loss would, of course, be very largely augmented. With reference to the answer which I gave in this House on the 15th of May as to the estimated additional loss which the revenue would sustain by the establishment of universal penny postage, I may 1680 say that the sum of £400,000 then mentioned would be largely increased by any considerable addition to the correspondence.