SIR TOLLEMACHE SINCLAIRasked the Postmaster General, Why the mail trains which are now run from London to Helmsdale, a distance of seven hundred miles, are not to be continued over the Sutherland and Caithness Line to Wick and Thurso, a distance of sixty miles, which forms the last link in the great line of through communication between England and Scotland; and, what security there will be for the regular conveyance of the mails to Caithness?
§ LORD JOHN MANNERS, in reply, said, that at the present time the railway referred to in the Question of the hon. Gentleman was not opened, nor was he 996 aware of the time at which it was intended to open it. When the work was accomplished, and after the directors had arranged their trains, the necessary arrangements would be made for the conveyance of the mails over the line, if the trains were found suitable. With regard to the last part of the Question, he had to say that the mails were now regularly conveyed to Wick and Thurso, and he had no doubt they would continue to be conveyed with the same regularity after the railway had been opened.
SIR TOLLEMACHE SINCLAIRsaid, the Answer of the noble Lord was so extremely unsatisfactory, that he should take an early opportunity of calling the attention of the House to the subject.