Newspaper Postage Docket Cancellations

Newspapers could be posted as bulk parcels. Here is the relevant extract from the Queensland Postal Regulations of 1895:

• Bulk parcels, consisting of at least four newspapers, with or without supplements, printed and published in Queensland, not exceeding 14 lb. in weight, will be forwarded at the rate of ld. per lb., if posted by a recognised newspaper publisher or newsvendor, who must register his name at the local post office; such charge shall be levied on the aggregate weight of the parcels lodged at any one time. The stamps to be affixed to the "newspaper" postage docket, and shall be cancelled by the person posting the newspapers, by writing or printing across the stamps, and the post office receiving officer shall impress the docket with the date stamp of the office and send it to the Accountant at the Chief Office by the first mail. The parcels must be stamped at the receiving office with the "paid at" stamp and the date stamp of office

Extract from the Queensland postal regulations of 1892, providing advice to postal officials.

As the Newspaper Postage Docket and accompanying stamps were to be retained by the postal service, any surviving examples are extremely rare. I have only ever seen one example of the docket, shown on the Queensland Stamp Collecting Facebook Group.

In this example, the bulk postage was £2.0.11 for 491 lbs of newspaper cancelled with a rubber stamp with the words 'The Telegraph Newspaper Company' and dated 17 April 1896

I have several other examples where the stamps that accompanied the docket have been cancelled by the sender using either a rubber stamp or a manuscript cancellation. 

The Patriot rubber stamp in black and blue ink with a Maryborough post office datestamp of 1894

A composite image of the Maryborough Newspaper Company Ltd rubber stamp, with Maryborough post office datestamps of 1893

A composite image of the Maryborough Chronicle and the Colonist rubber stamp, with Maryborough post office datestamps of 1893

Wide Bay and Burnett News rubber stamp, with Maryborough post office datestamps of 1893. The proprietor's name, William Keith, is included and the paper was published in Maryborough

Some more examples from Maryborough

The Australian Newspaper in manuscript and also cancelled at the GPO obliterator in Brisbane.

The Moreton Mail in manuscript and also cancelled at the GPO obliterator in Brisbane.  It was a newspaper in Sandgate, Brisbane first issued on 9 January 1886 and from 1890 was known as the Moreton Mail and South Brisbane Times after incorporating the Enoggera, Toombul and Shire express in 1889 and the South Brisbane times in 1889. It ceased publication in August 1899

The Brisbane Newspaper Company in manuscript and also cancelled with a GPO obliterator in Brisbane

The Queensland Newspaper Company rubber stamp and they have also been cancelled in Brisbane with a postal GPO obliterator

The Telegraph Newspaper Company rubber stamp and also cancelled with a postal GPO obliterator in Brisbane. Ex Butler

This docket also appears to be newspaper related. Courtesy of Dave Elsmore