Queenslander (Brisbane), Saturday 3 January
1891, page 42
The
contemplated introduction of two new postage stamps recalls the fact (says a
correspondent) that this is not the first occasion a halfpenny stamp has been
issued by the Queensland Post Office. At the beginning of 1880— Mr. Charles
Hardie Buzacott being Postmaster-General—the British Government discontinued
the long-sea mail service via Southampton, and arranged to send all Australian
mails via Brindisi, reducing postage rates for letters from 8d. to 7d. per 0.5oz.
and for newspapers from 3d. to l.5d. per 4oz. The necessity for the fractional
stamp was met by surcharging in black type the word "halfpenny"
(reading upwards) over the dull red inartistic penny stamp then current. Even
this provisional expedient was not ready quite as soon as needed, and by the
first mail which left after the reduction operated here the authorities passed
newspapers bearing a penny stamp and a half cut triangularly. The halfpenny
stamp was required for less than two months. The rates via Southampton had been
6d. for letters and 1d. for newspapers, and the abolition of these cheaper
rates caused such dissatisfaction here that the Postmaster-General cabled the
Premier, Mr. (now Sir) Thomas McIlwraith, then in London, who arranged with the
Imperial authorities for a farther reduction of the Brindisi rates to 6d. and 1d.,
which took effect on 1st March, 1880. Since the Brindisi route was established
in 1870 the postal rate has come down from 13d. by successive reductions to 9d.
8d., 7d., 6d., and 2.5d. To Brisbane the ocean transit has been reduced by
about 4200 miles, whilst the time occupied has fallen from 57 to 37 days, mails
having frequently been delivered in 33.5 days from London.
