§ MR. MACARTNEY (Antrim, S.)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade if arrangements could be made to ship and land the mails and luggage at Holyhead and Kingstown by mechanical means, so as to avoid the delay that is occasioned by the present system?
§ * SIR M. HICKS BEACHI am not surprised that my hon. Friend should have called attention to this subject. The present system of shipping and landing the mails and baggage at Holyhead and Kingstown by hand must cause great delay, and is a terrible blot on a service which is, in all other respects, perhaps the best of its kind in the world. I have been in communication with the Post Office, the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company, and the London and North-Western Railway Company, in the hope of effecting an improvement of the kind suggested by my hon. Friend. The City of Dublin Company were willing to incur considerable expense for this purpose, but I find the Post Office obstinately determined to adhere to the present system, and the Railway Company would do nothing to assist in a change. 1183 I am unable to do more, as it is not in my power to insist on an improvement in the matter.
In reply to MR. SEXTON (Belfast, W.),
§ * SIR M. HICKS BEACHsaid: I do not think that I can lay the correspondence between two Departments of the Government upon the Table of the House.
§ MR. SEXTONWill the right hon. Gentleman give the correspondence between the Railway Company and the Steam Packet Company?
§ * SIR M. HICKS BEACHI will see what I can do.