passing through the post was 123,000,000, and their total weight
5,000,000 pounds.[322]

In 1898 the Canadian Government desired to reduce the internal letter
postage, which still stood at 3 cents, to the almost universal rate of 2
cents;[323] but the loss of revenue which such a reduction would entail
was so great that they were driven to seek fresh revenue to meet the
deficiency. In view of the abuses of the newspaper privilege, and the
generally unsatisfactory position which had developed, this was thought
to be a suitable occasion for the reimposition of postage on
newspapers.[324] The rate proposed was 1/2 cent a pound. Opposition to
the change was made on the same grounds as in 1867: that newspapers were
the real educators of the people, that the dissemination of
intelligence, particularly of political intelligence, was of the utmost
importance, and that no impediment should be put in the way of their
freest possible distribution.

The great necessity for a new source of postal revenue made it
impossible, however, to continue the free privilege in its entirety, and
the 1/2-cent bulk rate was carried. The free privilege was continued for
local papers distributed within a radius of ten miles, in order to
enable the country papers to compete with the papers of the large towns.
The country papers are very jealous (and perhaps somewhat fearful) of
the great city papers, although the telegraph has given the country
papers an advantage in point of time. This is of great value in a
country of enormous distances--especially in the case of daily
papers--but is yet not of vital importance in the case of weekly
newspapers, which do not rely so much on late news. The competition of
the weekly papers of the great cities is severe; and the radius of
competition even of their daily papers is considerable. The
letter-carriers of Ottawa were at that time daily engaged in carrying
free enormous quantities of newspapers published in Montreal or
Toronto.[325]

The rate fixed in 1898 was not intended to be permanent; and in 1900,
when the revenue had become sufficiently buoyant to warrant the step, a
Bill was introduced to reduce the postage on newspapers to 1/8 of 1 cent
a pound for transmission in the province or territory of distribution.
The general purpose of the Bill was to reduce the rate for limited
distances, and the province or territory was adopted as the most
convenient unit of area. Newspapers were being posted literal