§ MR. HENNIKER HEATON (Canterbury)I have to ask the Postmaster General why mails from Australia by the long sea route are taken to the Plymouth Post Office to be sorted instead of being dealt with in the travelling post office, Plymouth viâ Bristol; whether this is an exceptional delay, which does not occur in the case of letters which arrive by sea from America, Cape of Good Hope, West Indies, and New Zealand; whether he will cause inquiry to be made why 5,000 letters from India and Australia for Scotland and Ireland were not forwarded by the down Irish day mail of the 18th instant; by what despatch were they ultimately forwarded; and how many hours' delay were these letters subjected to?
§ THE POSTMASTER GENERAL (Mr. RAIKES,) Cambridge UniversityThe mails from Australia, brought to Plymouth by the long sea route at reduced postage rates, average only about 3,000 letters, and they are easily disposed of at the Plymouth Post Office—a plan which does not generally involve delay. To forward them by special train, as is done sometimes with the large and important mails from the Cape, the 709 West Indies, and New Zealand, would cost about £46 per mail, an expense far greater than would be warranted by the importance of the correspondence, which the senders have designedly forwarded for economy's sake by the long sea route in preference to the dearer but quicker route of Brindisi. As regards the second question, I may explain that it was through a combination of untoward circumstances that some 5,000 letters for the country districts of Scotland and Ireland lost the first despatch on the 18th of March, and were delayed from four to twelve hours. These letters formed part of about 35,000 letters for the provinces, which reached London a short time before the despatch of the down Irish day mail, and had to be dealt with at the same time as two American mails. Nevertheless, 30,000 of the Indian and Australian letters were despatched by the outgoing mails, including all those for England, and nearly all for Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Dublin. The Scotch and Irish provincial letters generally take longer to sort than the rest of the correspondence, owing to the intricacy of the sorting. I have again to apologize to the House for occupying its time with trivial details of this description.
§ MR. HENNIKER HEATONI beg to give notice that, in consequence of this answer, I will move, on going into Committee of Supply, that the salary of my right hon. Friend the Postmaster General be reduced by £2,499 19s. 11¾d.—that is to ¼d.; and I will call attention to the answer to show that the statement just made is not in accordance with facts.