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    Juoa; 16, 1851J Cftl UfaftPV. 769 ^

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    Newspaper Stamps. Repollt Op The Select ...

    " 2 . Also , any paper printed weekly or oftener , or at intervals not exceeding twenty-six days , containing only or principally advertisements . " 3 . Also , any paper containing any public news , intelligence , or occurrences , or any remarks or . observations thereon , printed for sale , and published periodically , or in parts or numbers , not exceeding twenty-Bra days between the publication of any two such papers , parts or numbers , when any of the said papers , parts or numbers , respectively , shall not exceed two sheets of the dimensions specified , or shall be published for sale for a less price than 6 d ., exclusive of the duty by the act im" The net produce of these duties , in the year 1850 ,

    was £ 350 , 418 ; and , on an average of the years 1848 , 1849 , and 1850 , amounted to £ 350 , 545 per annum . " It appears from the evidence of Mr . Keogh and Mr . Timms that , in the opinion of the Board of Inland Revenue , there are three classes of publications legally liable to the newspaper stamp : —1 . Any paper containing public news , without reference to price , size , interval of publication , or to its being published more than once . 2 . Any paper printed at less intervals than twenty-six days , containing only or principally advertisements . 3 . Any paper containing remarks on public news printed at less intervals than twenty-six days , where the price is less than 6 d ., or the size less than two sheets .

    " With regard to publications of the first class , your committee would remark upon the difficulty which must necessarily exist in determining what the taxable article ' news' is , and whether any or how much of it may be contained in an unstamped publication ; and , therefore , they were not surprised to find that the officers of the Board of Inland Revenue were unable to define the character of the intelligence which may legally be published on unstamped paper , or that the practice of the board had not been uniform as to the kind of publications upon which they had felt themselves bound from time to time to enforce the stamp . In proof of the difficulty of defining the meaning of the term

    • news , ' your committee would point to the evidence of the solicitor of the Board of Inland Revenue , who states , that the Queen ' s speech is ' news , ' and he thinks that any one who printed the Queen ' s speech on a piece of unstamped paper would be liable to a penalty of £ 20 , but he doubts whether the Chancellor of the Exchequer ' s speech is news ; and in the case of the Queen ' s speech being printed on unstamped paper , he says ' that it is done almost immediately after every speech is delivered , but when we have notice of that we write and tell the parties they have infringed the law ; if we had a copy of it , so that we could bring the offence home to the party , we should prosecute him . ' Further , the Board of Inland Revenue , as it appears from the evidence of their secretary , recognise a difference hard to be understood between public and private news , and draw a distinction unknown

    to the law between public and class news . Respecting private news , the secretary states that a paper containing nothing but records of proceedings in private families , and calumnious insinuations as to the conduct of individuals , is not liable to the stamp ; and as to class news , it is understood that a paper addressed to one particular subject—for instance , architecture or law , & c , and giving news bearing on that particular subject only , or on persons connected with it—is not considered a newspaper ; thus the Legal Observer publishes without a stamp an account of a meeting of lawyers upon any subject , as class news ; but , if it had published an account of a meeting of clergymen , then the secretary ' would not have had the slightest doubt' as to its liability to the stamp duty , as it would then be a report of a meeting of persons not connected with the class subjects .

    It appears that the Board of Inland Revenue have not usually interfered with class publications confined to particular objects in consequence of the insertion therein of some trifling paragraphs of public news ; yet there are exceptions to this rule , for in the case of an unstamped clasB monthly publication , called the Norwich Rejormer , where only one-sixteenth of the contents came under the description of news , the solicitor to the board thought it necessary to intimate to the publishers that they " were infringing the law .

    " On the second class of publications your committee have not much information before them . It appears , however , that the circulation of these papers must be restricted by the stamp , and the facilities to the public of advertising thereby considerably lessened . This is especiall y true in regard to the cases of advertising sheets which are given away , where the point at which expenditure and receipts balunce each other , and beyond which no circulution can take place without absolute loss is sooner arrived at where each copy is compelled to beur the stamp than if it were free from that tax

    As to the third class of publications which are hold by the board to be liable to the stamp , your committee would observe that , if it is difficult to make clear the meaning of the term * news , ' the difficulty is grentl y increased in attempting to define remarks upon news , and in drawing the distinction between remarks upon newH and news itself , a distinction necessary to be made , because the limner may , under certain conditions , be published without a Btamp , while the latter is nlwuya liable to the duty * - he object for which the third class of publications was rendered liable to the provisions of the Newspaper Act appears to have been to subject to restrictions small and ohi'np publications isnued at frequent intervals , not conenlered as newspapers , but merely containing essays on Political subjects ; the solicitor to the Hoard of Inland revenue states that there has been ' very little practice at uu in reference to this class of publications , because the IHUHlcutloiUS thttt have come nmli > r t > i « t . will ,.,. ,, f fl .,. i .,,,, , l

    Have generally contained public news , and , therefore , in-v-nave come under the first definition of newspapers th . Yti * ¦ ttVC atu ' P t « d l » exciiHo themselves by mating tloii ¦ i * PUpCr '" not a" « w paper within the third defiui" < m , out our reply to that in , ' It ia a nowapupcr within

    the first definition , because it contains public news , intelligence , and occurrences . ' " It appears to your committee that , with respect to comments on news in cheap publications , the law has been allowed to some extent to sleep . One witness , extensively engaged in publishing periodicals of various kinds , pointed out the difficulty of keeping within the law about comme nting upon events ; and it is notorious that a great number of " publications , issued at intervals of less than twenty-six days , and at prices Jess than 6 d ., by philanthropic , religious , political , and other societies , are published without a stamp , and contain comments and observations upon public events .

    " It appears to your committee that , if the law imposing a stamp on public intelligence and on observations thereon were carried out , nearly all periodical printed matter , and a large portion of oc casional printed matter , would be subjected to the stamp duty ; while , if it be understood that the law is not to be fully observed , much unequal competition must continue to arise between different publishers , and the Board of Inland Revenue will continue to be placed in the undesirable position of having to decide upon what periodicals the law is to be enforced , and in what cases its provisions may be dispensed with .

    " A want of uniformity in the practice of the board , even as to the sort of publications on which they appear to intend to enforce the law , is shown by the evidence . As an instance that might be cited , the committee would point to the case of the Wakejield Examiner , a provincial paper , where a prosecution was instituted against , and a penalty of £ 10 , being rather more than the duty incurred , inflicted upon the publisher for reprinting separately , on unstamped paper , the report of a trial which had previously appeared in his own stamped newspaper , while it appears that in the metropolis and elsewhere speeches in Parliament and accounts of public meetings are issued without stamps in a similar manner .

    " With regard to the operation of the stamp on the established newspapers , it is of course obvious that by increasing their cost it limits the field of their circulation ; and moreover it has been shown that the penny stamp on each copy of a newspaper generally raises the price to the public beyond the mere addition of that sum . The effect of the Newspaper Act in restricting the superficial extent of letterpress in newspapers , and affixing an additional stamp on supplements to newspapers , is to make it necessary for the proprietors of the Times , as stated by its manager , in order to avoid loss , not only to reject advertisements , but to prevent the circulation of that paper from exceeding certain limits . The manager of the Times also states that , ' if there were no considerations but that of supplying the public demand for that paper , it would probably double its circulation within two years . '

    " Some opinions are expressed that the proprietors of existing newspapers have an interest in the maintenance of the stamp , and would be injured by its abolition . Were these views correct they could not be considered to furnish a good ground for retaining the stamp if the public interests required its repeal ; but your committee find little evidence in support of those opinions , and they point to the testimony of the manager of the Times , who states ' his conviction that , if the stamp duty be taken off ' , the commercial advantages of the Times would be enormous . ' " It is stated to your committee by the editor of the Scotsman , that the penny stamp is ' a favourable arrangement for newspapers on the whole ; ' that he does not ' consider it a tax , ' but ' a payment made to the Postoffice for services which he does not think could be so

    efficiently performed in any other way formuch more cost . ' Other witnesses do not participate in this opinion , nor is it supported by the Post-office authorities . It appears to your committee that newspapers do not practically enjoy such favourable terms for transmission by post as other printed matter ; for while newspapers are compelled to stamp every copy of their impression , whether sent by post or not , other publications , up to the weight of two 07 .., obtain , by virtue of a Treasury minute , the same freedom from , postage as newspapers , by registering as newspapers , and by stamping only so many copies as are actually required to be sent by post . If the newspaper stamp were allowed to be affixed only to such copies of newspapers as go through the post it might then assume the character of a mere equivalent for postal

    services , but in those cases , especially in that of provincial papers where the post ia little used , the compulsory stamp upon every copy can be viewed in no other light than that of a tax . In reality , however , the freedom from postage charge is not always accorded to newspapers in return for the newspaper Btamp . As an instance of this , your committee think it right to advert to an anomaly that existB with regard to the transmission of newspapers by postage , viz ., that in the London district , a circle of three miles round the General Post-office , and where the post might be of" much use for the distribution of newspapers , a stamped newupapcr is charged a penny if posted in one part of that district to be transmitted to another . Your oommittoe do not see any good reason for this regulation , and would , therefore , recommend that it be ubolinhciL

    " Your committee find that considerable evasions of the postage charge take place under cover or pretence of stamped newspapers ; Chat letters and unstamped publications and parcela are Kent concealed within rolls of stamped newspapers ; and that unstamped and foreign newspapers are occasionally paused without being subjected to charge . This is partly admitted by the Postofhee authorities , who attribute much of the evasion to the uupcru which puBH through the Pom-office by virtue of the IreuBury minute of lHM . It in clear that in a department transmitting daily from 120 , 000 to 2 <> 0 , 000 paperH , und which are despatched within two or three hours alter the greater portion of them are received , nothing but an extravagantl y largo force of examiners could provent evuaion . * "If a revenue is to be derived from the postago of

    newspapers , it is worthy of consideration whether it would not be simpler and more economical that the collection of such revenue should be managed , as in the case of letters , directly by the Post-office rather than indirectly by another department . Were this suggestion adopted , and the present newspaper stamp abolished , your committee see no reason to doubt that the Postoffice authorities would devise means of regulating the transmission and distribution by post of newspapers , if not of all printed matter , at a small charge , not exceeding a penny for each packet up to a weight equal to that of

    the largest existing newspaper , without exposing the revenue to the frauds to which the present system unavoidably renders it subject . In passing , it may be right to mention the peculiar use which is sometimes made of the existing privilege of sending papers within the United Kingdom , free from postage charge for ever , in virtue of the original Somerset-house stamp . Mr . Parkhurst , senior clerk in the office of the secretary of the Post-office ( Evidence 1 , 677 ) , says , 'We know that newspapers are sent as waste paper very often through the post ; there have been cases of very old bundles of papers being sent in that way , '

    " There is , however , a consideration connected with the additional cost supposed to be caused by the imposition of the stamp on newspapers which requires a particular notice—viz ., the right of gratuitous transmission of newspapers through post . Mr . Smith , the head of a London newspaper agency firm , which has been established for the last sixty years , and which transmits about one-seventh of all the London daily papers , states distinctly that there transmission of newspapers is carried on to a most enormous extent , so as greatly to reduce

    the cost of their newspaper to those least able to pay for it . He gives instances in which the cost of the Times is thus reduced to 2 d ., and even to Id ., and yet read by the last person in the aeries on the second morning after publication ; and he adds , that the number of persons thus receiving the best newspapers at a very cheap rate is exceedingly numerous , and that the proposed charge of a penny for each retransmission would , in fact , prevent them , probably , from taking any paper at all , unless it was a weekly paper .

    "On the whole , considering , on the one hand , the various modes now in use by railways and private agency of distributing newspapers through the country ; and , on the other , the frauds upon the Post-office from unstamped publications being now unavoidably carried post free ; seeing , in short , that in many cases the stamp is paid where no postal advantages are received , and in other case $ the stamp is not paid where postal advantages are obtained , your committee are of opinion that immediate steps should be taken to place the regulations affecting the transmission of newspapers and other printed matter by post on a more satisfactory footing .

    " In examining witnesses as to the operation of the law on the newspaper press , it is found that an opinion prevails to some small extent that the maintenance of the stamp has the effect of rendering newspapers more respectable than they would be if free from that restriction . After weighing the reasons for such opinion , your committee conclude that it does not rest on any good foundation . No deterioration of the newspaper press , but , on the contrary , an improvement , followed the reduction of the stamp which took place in 1836 ; and doubtless the character of newspapers would continue to improve in proportion to the advance in public taste and morals , although the stamp should be entirely abolished . It is

    stated by one of the witnesses , as an objection to the removal of the stamp , that a new class of journals would spring up , if the stamp were repealed , in the smaller towns and country districts , and that it would be ( Evidence , 1555 ) ' a misfortune that there should be local papers of a more petty character than at present exist . ' The general bearing of nearly all the other evidence is of a contrary tendency ; and the unanimous opinion of those gentlemen . who , being persons who had devoted attention to the education and social improvement of the working classes , were specially examined on this branch of the subject , was to the effect that moral advantages might be expected to follow the establishment of cheap local newspapers .

    " Your committee concur with the proprietor of the . Liverpool Journal in thinking that the cheapening the cost of existing provincial papers would extend their circulation and improve their quality ; while they also believe that , should a now claws of small and cheap local papers aiise , they would occupy a field hitherto not reached by existing newspapers , and be the vehicles of knowledge to large classes of persons who otherwise would get no newspaper at all . " The present extensive sale of penny publications , us shown by the evidence ( Evidence , 21 !) 1 and 250 JJ ) , abundantly proves the desire among the humbler classes for some kind of reading and mental improvement ; but the

    stamp prevents the penny paper from containing a record of the current events of life , thus depriving the readers of small periodicals , who are for the most part persons living by labour or of limited means , of that most useful knowledge , the news of the day ; for which , ; is in stated by Mr . Abel lleywood , a gentleman extensively engaged in supplying cheap literature , ' as the result of his experience' among the class of readers alluded to , there is a greater desire than for any other kind of information . It may he uaid , with truth , that the newspaper stump prohibits the existence of such newspapers an from their price and churucter would be suitable to the menus and wantH of the labouring classes .

    " The question of pirating articles of intelligence by one newspaper from another has been brought under the notice of your committee by witne . sHe . s conversant with the newspaper prows , and favourable ' <> the abolition of tho duty . The established newspapers- purUcularly the London daily press—collect , thv valuable information whioh they report to the jHiblio uf a very great , expense , and publish it at u very etmtly celerity . It has been mated that if the liewnimper duty were ubolmhetl there would | bo great temptation to the numerous halfpenny

    Juoa; 16, 1851j Cftl Ufaftpv. 769 ^

    Juoa ; 16 , 1851 J Cftl UfaftPV . 769

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 16, 1851, page 5, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_16081851/page/5/