§ SIR GEORGE BOWYERsaid, he rose to ask, Whether it is the intention of the Post Office Authorities to farm out the Paying and Issuing Window of the Chief Money Order Office; that is to say, whether they intend to confide it to a private individual, who for certain advantages will contract to supply the labour, in order that the regular appointments may be abolished; and, if so, what is proposed to be done with the officers who are to be thus superseded in their duties by contract labour, the whole of those officers having been more than five years on the establishment?
§ MR. LAINGreplied, that no decision had been come to as to farming out the Issuing Window referred to by the hon. and learned Gentleman. In answer to the latter question, he could only say that he knew of no way in which any officer could be superseded, but any question of compensation would be regulated by the Superannuation Act.
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUERsaid, he would take that opportunity of informing the hon. and learned Baronet who took an interest in the subject, that the Report of the Committee appointed to inquire into the working of the Post Office had been presented, but it was 1780 not the intention of the Government to lay it before Parliament at that time. The investigation had been carried on at a period when there had been a double change—the office of Postmaster General, and when Sir Rowland Hill had been necessarily absent from illness. The Report raised many questions of great importance, and proposed many changes; and the Government did not think it would be right to lay it before Parliament until they had come to a decision upon those recommendations.