The Postmaster-General, Mr. Fawcett, in receiving, this day week, a
deputation from the Society of Arts to request the re- duction of the minimum inland telegraph rate from ls. to 6d., replied to the address read to him in a singularly able review of the whole subject, and especially of the principles which ought to govern the rates charged by Government for services of this kind. He maintained that to charge any rate which was not fully remunerative, really taxes the country for the benefit of those who make use of this mode of communication, and is as indefensible economically as it would be to pay a bounty to all those persons who make use of these services. On the other hand, to charge any rate which is more than remunerative, is to place a tax on these modes of communication for the benefit of the country at large ; and in this light, all the profit, over and above interest on capital laid out, earned by these services, after the cost of keeping them up is fully defrayed, must be regarded. It was for the Chancellor of the Exchequer, said Mr. Fawcett, not for the Postmaster- General, to decide the expediency or inexpediency of such a tax. All that he could do would be to lay down the con- ditions under which it would be possible for the State to reduce• the cost of telegrams to a 6d. minimum, without taxing the rest of the community for the benefit of telegram-senders; or, again, without the sacrifice of any important element of the Revenue.
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