Darling Downs Gazette, Saturday 11 July
1891, page 4
Newspaper Postage
This is a great nuisance. There can be no doubt about that, but the
battle can always be safely left to the metropolitan journals. To them it is an
unmitigated infliction. Being able to work on a vaster scale, which means more
cheaply, than we provincialists, the big dailies, under the fostering care of a
paternal Government which carries thousands of tons of such literature free
from one end of the land to the other, are able to squash by sheer weight most
country organs of public opinion into a woeful state of flatness, so that the
raison d'être of these last narrows down into a localism of a mile or two in
radius.
With such handicapping it is hard work and requires a lot of watching to
keep the stagnant waters of localism from smothering you; to be an organ of
opinion extending beyond the span-wide circle; to be the advocate of something
besides the interests of the one-street town in which you live, and live. This journal is doing it, or
trying hard to, at any rate, but not with impunity. The imposition of post age
duty on newspapers will at least have the effect of keeping back the
competition of the big dailies in some small degree, but whether that degree be
sufficient to compensate for the certain disadvantages and the extra work and
worry of the thing is another matter. But as we said already, there is no
occasion for us to 'fash' about it. The metropolitans will block the vile,
iniquitous and retrogressive measure if it can be done. It will be all that to
them, however it may affect the struggling exponent of one divisional board.
Brisbane Courier, Saturday 9 January
1897, page 4
Intercolonial Newspaper
Postage
Arrangements have been entered into with the Queensland postal
authorities whereby N.S.W. newspapers for circulation in this colony can be
posted at Wallangarra. The postage rate will therefore be at the rate of 1d.
for every 10oz., as compared with 1⁄2d. for every 2oz. if the newspapers were
posted in New South Wales. Under this arrangement the "S. M. Herald"
forward the papers for Queensland circulation to their agent at Jennings, who
affixes the necessary stamps to them, carries them across the border, and posts
them in the Intercolonial mail train.
