'I shall write to every one in turn, but it is expensive sending to
many at once,' says one of the poor needlewomen, whom Mr Sydney
Herbert's Female Emigration Fund has enabled to obtain a comfortable
home at Adelaide. Well might she complain of the expense. When at
home, she could send a letter to the most distant corner of the United
Kingdom for a penny. In Australia, she finds that the cost of sending
a letter to her mother in London is a shilling. It is strange that the
colonists do not make an outcry about so extravagant a charge. Of all
the anomalies in English legislation, our colonial postage-system is
certainly one of the most glaring; and yet, in the midst of so much
effort for emigration and colonisation, hardly any one seems to be
aware of it. The people of England, Ireland, and Scotland have, for
the last twelve years, enjoyed the incalculable benefits of
Penny-Postage, but they have never thought of extending its blessings
to their fellow-countrymen, scattered abroad among our various
colonies over the whole surface of the globe.
Under the old dear system, the cost of sending a letter home from any
of the colonies was not felt so much as it is now. The emigrant,
before he left home, had always been accustomed to pay from 9d. to 1s.
2d. for letters from distant parts of the United Kingdom, and he could
not complain at finding the postage from Canada or Australia to the
mother-country only a little dearer. But the case has been entirely
changed since Rowland Hill's plan came into operation. What seemed a
moderate rate before that great improvement took place, is now an
exorbitant charge, which no working-man will pay very frequently. In
this, as in most other affairs, it is not the actual but the
comparative cost of the article which makes it seem dear. To a person
who has recently left his native land, and who is probably still
suffering from homesickness, a letter from any beloved friend or
relative is worth far more than many shillings; indeed, the value
cannot be estimated in sterling coin. But, unfortunately, the first
mode in which the emigrant discovers that the social luxury of
correspondence has advanced 1100 per cent. in price, is not in the
tempting shape of a letter from home. He must first write to his
friends before he can expect them to write to him, and that is a task
which nine persons out of ten, on the most charitable calculation, are
very strongly tempted to procrastinate, from day to day, even without
any pecuniary obstacle. But how much stronger the temptation to put
off the writing of 'that letter' from day to day for weeks, and at
last for months, when the poor emigrant, still struggling with
difficulties, finds that, instead of only a penny for each letter, he
must now pay a shilling? What wonder though many thousands, who have
left friends and relatives behind them, all anxiously on the outlook
for some tidings of their welfare, should defer the task of writing
home for a month or two, finding it so dear; and, having got over the
first few months, gradually become careless, and never write home at
all? There are few people who have not known many instances of this
kind; and we have little doubt that it is owing mainly to this cause
that they have given up all correspondence with the old country.
It is strange that Mr Sydney Herbert, Mrs Chisholm, and the rest of
those honourable men and women who have taken so much pains to promote
emigration, should not have seen the importance of obtaining colonial
postage reform. Mr Gibbon Wakefield, in his _England and America_,
published nearly twenty years ago, lays much stress upon the impulse
which healthy emigration to our colonies would derive from any measure
which should enable the poorer class of emigrants to write home more
frequently. As a proof of this, he remarks, that the great emigration
from England which had recently taken place--an increase of about 200
per cent. over former years--had been mainly caused by the publication
of letters from poor emigrants to their friends at home. With a view
to encourage such correspondence, he suggests that, for some years
after their arrival in a colony, poor emigrants should be allowed the
privilege of sending their letters free of postage. Thanks to Rowland
Hill, we have learned that letters can be carried at so very small a
cost, that even the poor can afford to pay the sum charged by the
post-office authorities in this country; and it requires little more
than a stroke of the colonial secretary's pen to extend the same
invaluable privilege to the thousands of emigrants who leave this
country every month for some one or other of our numerous colonies.
What Mr Gibbon Wakefield says of the free-postage plan of that time,
would apply with nearly equal force to the proposed Colonial
Penny-Postage:--'In this way, not only would the necessary evil of
going to a colony be diminished--that is, the emigrants would depart
with the pleasant assurance of being able to communicate with their
friends at home--but the poorer classes in the mother-country would
always hear the truth as to the prospects of emigrants; and not only
the truth, but truth in which they would not suspect any falsehood.'
He goes on to say, that the statements published about that time, by
an emigration-board sitting in Downing Street, shewing what high wages
were obtainable in the colonies, 'though perfectly true, have not been
received with implicit faith by the harassed, and therefore suspicious
class to whom they were addressed; nor would any statements made by
the government ever obtain so much credit as letters from the
emigrants themselves.' All who have ever paid any attention to the
subject of emigration, and who have mixed familiarly among the poorer
classes, will agree with Mr Wakefield. All the government returns that
ever were made, backed by ever so many extracts from colonial
newspapers, about the high rate of wages, and the cheapness of
provisions, will not make half the impression upon a poor man which a
single letter from an emigrant brother, a son, or a trustworthy
friend, will produce.
We should be glad to see the country rouse itself on this important
question, regarding which numerous meetings have already been held.