POST-OFFICE REVENUE. (Hansard, 1 March 1841)

§ Mr. Goulburn

was anxious to take the opportunity which the presence of the Chancellor of the Exchequer afforded him, to ask the right hon. Gentleman a question with reference to an account some time since presented to this House, of the net produce of the Post-office for the last year. By a return presented of the net amount of Post-office revenue for the last year, it would appear, that the amount was 447,000l., which, us compared with the revenue of the Post-office for the previous year, exhibited a deficiency of 1,200,000l. Me had reason to apprehend, that that presented altogether a fallacious view of the matter, under the new system of the Post-office revenue, and the question he wished to ask the right hon. Gentleman was, whether that view of the subject was correct in connection with the statement he was about to make? Of that 447,000l. which had been paid into the Exchequer, a considerable portion was the revenue derived from official correspondence, and that having been voted by the House, was, in fact, not a receipt of revenue, but merely a payment on the one side, and a receipt on the other. They had on the Table a statement of what had been a month's receipt on account of official correspondence, which amounted to about 16,000l., and it would, therefore, be evident to the House, that the official correspondence for twelve months, would amount to nearly 200.000l., which must be deducted from the 447,000l. But there was another great item of deduction to be made. It appeared, that on the 1st of January, 1840, the unpaid balance in the hands of the collectors of revenue, amounted to little short of 200,000l., and it was quite clear, that the balance in hand, under the new system, must be as nothing compared with the former balances and, therefore, a further deduction on account of these unpaid balances must be made. Having made these two deductions, the result would be, that instead of 447,000l. the balance to the public credit would be little more than 40,000l. or 50,000l., arising from last year's Post-office arrangement. He wished to ask the right hon. Gentleman whether that was not a correct statement of the case, and whether the loss sustained by the Post-office revenue was not as great as he had represented it?

§ The Chancellor of the Exchequer

said, if the right hon. Gentleman had waited a little he would, in the course of a day or two, have had the information laid on the Table of the House which he was so anxious to obtain. The Member for Harwich had moved for returns which would show what was fairly to be taken as the amount of the revenue derived from the Post-office under the new system. He was perfectly correct in supposing, that the Exchequer returns included all the postage of official as well as private correspondence. Hon. Gentlemen seemed to be under the impression, that all they received, before the present system was introduced, was clear postage, exclusive of official correspondence. But that was not the case; before the new law was passed, there were numerous documents of an official character passed through the Post-office; and, so far as the Exchequer returns went, therefore, they were, pro tanto, swelled by the amount of those official payments. Whether the amount of official postage, under the penny rate, was larger than under the old rates of postage was another question. He believed it would be found, that instead of about 200,000l. being paid for official postage (as stated by the right hon. Gentleman), the whole year's amount would be about 70,000l. He believed, that about 40,000l. used to be paid under the old rates of postage for official documents, so that the increase would be about 30,000l. With respect to the balances received from the collectors, there was no doubt, that during the corresponding quarter of 1840 there was a greater amount received from balances remaining in the hands of receivers under the old revenue, consequently the present quarter of this year would not show so favourably as the corresponding quarter of last year. On the other hand, he ought to state, that larger balances were obliged to be left in the postmasters' hands, on account of the extensive operation of the money-orders system.