§ MR. PIRIE(Aberdeen, N.): I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster-General, whether he is aware that the present system of postage allows journals, such as the Graphic and the Field, averaging in weight 19 oz:, and at special times 2 lb., composed as much of advertisement as of literary matter, and whose circulation; s almost entirely confined to the wealthier classes, to be carried by post for a halfpenny within the United Kingdom, whilst if the working man's penny periodicals, such as the People's Friend, exceeds the weight of 2 oz. by the merest fraction it has to pay one penny; if the Government can see its way to propose a change from this difference of postage rate, to-be brought about so as to include all weekly publications at the same rate; and if he is aware that booksellers'' orders for a quantity of these sixpenny weeklies are largely transmitted singly by post, instead of in the usual open-end parcel by the railway, which tends to inflict on the Post Office unremunerative work?
§ MR. HANBURYThe present regulations of the Newspaper Post, based upon the Post Office Act, 1870, take no cognisance of the price at which a periodical is sold, or the classes amongst whom it may circulate. What they do require is that the newspaper shall appear once a week at the least, and consist wholly or in great part of political or other news. The Graphic and the Field satisfy these requirements, and the other periodical named does not. As a matter of fact, the People's Friend is sent for a halfpenny by book post. As the honourable Member implies in the last paragraph, a good deal of the newspaper post is already unremunerative.