In connection with the changes introduced at the time of the Confederation, a charge for the transmission of newspapers by post was made general throughout the federated area. The charge met with considerable opposition from the Maritime Provinces, which thus lost the boon of free transmission.[314] It was justified as nothing more nor less than a simple charge for freight, the remission of which would be to offer a bounty to a particular industry. The possibilities of usefulness of the Post Office would, it was argued, be greatly reduced if the service were loaded with the burden of the gratuitous distribution of newspapers throughout so vast a country; since, if from the diminution of revenue which such a course must produce, the department were forced to look to Parliament for assistance, Parliament would be disposed to discourage the establishment of new offices in the thinly settled districts, where it was of the greatest importance that they should be found.[315] The arguments of members from the Maritime Provinces were somewhat diverse. They said there was an essential distinction between letters and newspapers, in that letters were private communications between individuals, while newspapers were in some measure the organs of communication between the Government and the people, and furnished the only means by which to acquire that acquaintance with the law which everybody was presumed to possess. Newspapers occupied a similar position to that of schools, and presented one of the easiest channels of enlightenment. In many cases, for the ordinary folk no other means of education were open. On them the tax would be an imposition which might be contrasted, it was said, with the favour accorded to the commercial and wealthy classes by the reduction in the postage on letters. It was further argued that in the existing state of the Dominion, owing to the presence of a certain amount of sectional feeling and mutual hostility between different portions of the country, which could be attributed largely to the lack of that sort of information which newspapers could provide, it would be folly to hinder the freest possible distribution.[316] Moreover, a postage charge would fall unequally. The large towns and thickly populated areas would be able to obtain their papers by means of the railroad or other agency at little cost; but the outlying districts, which ought to be treated with special favour by the Legislature, would have no alternative to the payment of postage. The large newspapers would be able to distribute their issues by express, while the smaller ones would be compelled to use the post. The "tax" would yield only some $25,000 a year in Nova Scotia; and for such a paltry sum it surely could not be wise to levy this "tax upon knowledge," which "of all the heavy burdens laid upon Nova Scotia was the most oppressive."[317]