We are happy to perceive from the Post Office Report
for 1900-1901 that the business of the Post Office has increased by more than twenty-five per cent. since the last reduction in charges (1896-97), and also that the revenue is increasing, the surplus last year being £3,930,000. We wish it was treble that amount. We cannot agree at all with those of our con- temporaries who say that such a surplus implies overcharge, and that every penny of it ought to be expended in reductions to benefit the public. There is no complaint of the present charges, which are low for everything but parcels, and parcels must not be made too cheap until postmen can be provided with motor-cars. They are overworked already. We look with a little suspicion on the stinginess of some of the arrangements, particularly in the telegraph and savings-bank departments, but nothing can be better for the country than a considerable revenue obtained by means other than regular taxation. It lightens the general burden at the cost only of those who re- ceive an adequate benefit in return. It is difficult to see now what more the Post Office could do for the public, but experts say that the postal-order system might be considerably ex- tended, and dreamers talk of universal and compulsory in- surance for widows and children which the Post Office could work.
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