operation is one low-budget enterprise Government is failing to help during the recession.

Following several measures to help small businesses in last month's Budget, businesswoman Ms Wendy Powell is feeling left out.

At a time when money is tight, Ms Powell is furious at having to pay a $1,000 licence fee under the Post Office Amendment Act 1991.

Ms Powell, who runs local messenger firm Go-Fer Services on a shoestring budget, claims she is being treated as though she were a threat to the Post Office.

"A $1,000 fee for a mail handling licence is excessive and, as a small enterprise, I feel I'm being unfairly penalised,'' she said yesterday.

Ms Powell has become a familiar sight around Hamilton on weekdays as she scurries between businesses delivering anything from mail to meals.

Until the amendment Act two years ago, an operation like hers was exempted from having to pay a licence fee.

In a letter to the Ministry of Finance, she said the legal amendment was "clearly intended to apply to those companies involved with the operation of a private post office and/or international courier service that deprive the Government Post Office of potential revenue''.

She added: "I am purely a local messenger service and should be exempt as I would be under the original act.

"I am also concerned that other small messenger services and individual freelance messengers are continuing their services with no action being taken against them.

"It is also my understanding that one company was exempted by stating that his services were considered temporary. In my interpretations of the Act, this should not be enough reason.

"In closing, I would like some reassurance that a change will be made this year that will exempt all messenger services such as mine. The present arrangement is inequitable.'' But Financial Secretary Dr. Walwyn Hughes wrote back saying she must pay up.

He said: "The nature of the business which you are carrying out, i.e.

delivering mail for many different clients, does fall within the ambit of the requirement for a licence.

"While it is acknowledged that your business is not on the scale of some of the large couriers, there is at present no differentiation within the law to deal with differences in the scale of operation.

"Nevertheless, it is considered that the $1,000 annual licence fee is not unreasonable.

"The Postmaster General assures me that he is actively investigating companies which appear to be contravening the Act and he is taking legal advice to determine who should or should not be paying a licence fee.'' Ms Powell told The Royal Gazette that, if anything, she increased Post Office revenues rather than took any of it away because part of her job was to deliver mail from firms to be posted.

"There's no logic to the present law,'' she said.

Go-Fer Services charges about $5 per pick-up and does an average of about 50 pick-ups a day, said Ms Powell.

She normally only handles deliveries in and around Hamilton, although she will venture further afield for a regular client.