§ MR. HENNIKER HEATON (Canterbury)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, whether his attention has been called to a case in which the receiver of a postcard from Wigan sent it on in an open envelope, bearing a halfpenny 1711 stamp, to his agent at a neighbouring town, where a fine was imposed on the ground that the envelope contained a communication of the nature of a letter; and whether, as postage had been duly paid on the postcard and also on the envelope, and as the postcard was a communication to Mr. Greenall and not to his agent, the Postmaster General will treat it as book-post matter, and remit the fine?
§ THE SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY (Mr. R. W. HANBURY,) PrestonThe Postmaster General's attention has been given to the case referred to. The question is a nice one. Letters which have already passed through the Post and, having discharged their original purpose, have become old and spent, are allowed to be sent a second time at the Book Post rate as literature. But where the letter is, to the second person, as to the first, a current business communication, it is liable to letter postage. The communication sent on by Mr. Greenall to his agent was held to be still current correspondence and not literature, and the Postmaster General is not, therefore, prepared to remit the surcharge. The case is not affected by the communication having been written originally on a Post Card. Post Cards enclosed in envelopes are naturally treated as letters, even on their first transmission.