Queensland Times, Thursday 13 December 1894, page 4
Private Post Cards
The Postmaster-General is (writes our Brisbane correspondent) determined that every facility shall be offered to the public to transact its business through his department. In addition to the extension of the parcel post to all parts of the colony from the first of next month, he has now decided to admit private post cards to all the privileges hitherto exclusively enjoyed by the official cards issued by the post office. Regulations will therefore shortly be published under which, from the 1st of January next, private cards conforming in size and substance to the office cards, and of approved colour, will be admitted to the inland, intercolonial, and British and foreign circulation, at the same rates of postage as are now charged for the ordinary post cards, such postage being prepaid by means of stamps affixed to the cards. In thus admitting private cards, Queensland is following the lead of the British office where this concession has been long contended for, but it should be remembered under circumstances quite different to those hitherto obtaining here. In the United Kingdom the exclusive sale of post cards has been a considerable source of revenue to the post office, the public being compelled to buy from the department, and to pay a high price, very considerably above cost, thus a card, with a halfpenny stamp was sold for three farthings, and if larger numbers were purchased the price was proportionate; here the price of the impressed only is charged, and the cards, though costing in the aggregate a large sum for the material and printing, are given to the public without charge. This will explain to those unacquainted with the circumstances the reason of the long and persistent demand made in England by Mr. Henniker Heston and other postaI reformers, for the admission of private cards, and the disinclination of the Imperial Treasury to concede the demand because it involved a sacrifice of revenue.
The Postmaster-General is (writes our Brisbane correspondent) determined that every facility shall be offered to the public to transact its business through his department. In addition to the extension of the parcel post to all parts of the colony from the first of next month, he has now decided to admit private post cards to all the privileges hitherto exclusively enjoyed by the official cards issued by the post office. Regulations will therefore shortly be published under which, from the 1st of January next, private cards conforming in size and substance to the office cards, and of approved colour, will be admitted to the inland, intercolonial, and British and foreign circulation, at the same rates of postage as are now charged for the ordinary post cards, such postage being prepaid by means of stamps affixed to the cards. In thus admitting private cards, Queensland is following the lead of the British office where this concession has been long contended for, but it should be remembered under circumstances quite different to those hitherto obtaining here. In the United Kingdom the exclusive sale of post cards has been a considerable source of revenue to the post office, the public being compelled to buy from the department, and to pay a high price, very considerably above cost, thus a card, with a halfpenny stamp was sold for three farthings, and if larger numbers were purchased the price was proportionate; here the price of the impressed only is charged, and the cards, though costing in the aggregate a large sum for the material and printing, are given to the public without charge. This will explain to those unacquainted with the circumstances the reason of the long and persistent demand made in England by Mr. Henniker Heston and other postaI reformers, for the admission of private cards, and the disinclination of the Imperial Treasury to concede the demand because it involved a sacrifice of revenue.
